STOUGHTON — The eight people gathered in the basement of Covenant Lutheran Church included an engineer, an attorney, an insurance underwriter and an information technology professional — all looking for work.

“We’ve got so much functional background, we could start our own company,” joked Kevin Samuelson, 36, of Evansville, who was laid off from an IT job at Cummins on Dec. 15.

Hungry for work, groups of Madison-area unemployed like these hope job hunting in a pack will be more successful than job-hunting alone.

For “recession-proof” Madison, with a 6.2 unemployment rate in May, such home-grown job clubs are a somewhat new phenomenon. Similar groups are available through UW-Madison’s Division of Continuing Studies and the Dane County Job Center, but the new groups are developing through local churches.

“Churches are ideally situated to deal with job transition because they can provide the skills and the critical emotional support,” said Bob Shimmel, who has helped coordinate the Madison Area Job Transition Program through Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on the Southwest Side.

That program is held on the first and third Saturdays of each month and is more like a seminar with small breakout groups than a support group. The first two sessions in June attracted about 40 people.

Whatever the format, Shimmel said, job clubs share two traits: networking and skill building. They also provide emotional support during what can be a trying time in a person’s life.

Job hunting has proven more onerous in the current job market, with the unemployment rate reaching 8.7 percent in Wisconsin and 5.9 percent in Dane County in May. Recent unemployment levels are the highest since the early 1980s.

In response, the state Department of Workforce Development on July 1 expanded its re-employment services to about 10,000 unemployed people per month. The required three-hour job-skills workshop and skills assessment has served only several hundred per month in the past.

The Stoughton gathering, the Jobseekers Networking Group, has been meeting on Thursdays since early March to report updates on their job search, offer advice to each other, set weekly goals and hone their job-seeking skills. Weekly topics include interviewing tips, resume workshops or, this particular week, an introduction to LinkedIn, a social networking Web site for business professionals.

Not all members have lost a job. Joanne Bradley, 59, of Stoughton, attended her first meeting because her real estate business has dwindled to the point where she needs to find another source of income, preferably one that offers 40 hours of work each week.

“I am not a joiner of groups,” Bradley said. But the e-mails from jobs.com weren’t leading anywhere. She learned about the group at one of Stoughton’s recent “We’re Looking for Work” town meetings, which were organized by Buzz Davis, of the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, to assist the unemployed with their job search.

The Jobseekers Networking Group was founded by Paul Caravella, who lost his sales job at Sussek Machines at 8:15 a.m. on Jan. 23.

“At 8:45 a.m. I figured out I needed to do something other than the traditional job search,” Caravella said.

Taking a cue from Richard Nelson Bolles, whose 1970 book “What Color is Your Parachute?” laid out the benefits of job hunting in a pack, Caravella worked with his pastor to form a networking group that doubles as a support group and job skills workshop.

“Having other people in the same situation that you’re in, or even a worse situation, really gives you the strength to get up another day,” Caravella said.

It also helps when an engineer who knows of a job opening for a lawyer meets a lawyer who knows of a job opening for an engineer at a meeting.

So far, of the 36 people who have attended meetings, one found a job in procurement, Caravella said.

Job clubs are more common in major urban centers such as Minneapolis and Detroit, said Clara Nydam, president of Madison-based talent management company Career Momentum.

Nydam, who in recent months helped set up Crossroads Career Ministry, a job club through Blackhawk Church on the West Side, said in 20 years she hasn’t heard of any grassroots job clubs forming here until now.

The U.S. Department of Labor has found that 20 to 25 percent of jobs are obtained through job postings, 5 percent through recruiters, 5 percent by going in and filling out an application and the rest through networking, Nydam said.

“A lot of people believe that job search is done in front of your computer,” Nydam said. “The vast majority of jobs are found through interpersonal communication and relationships.”

UW-Madison’s weekly networking group through its Adult and Student Services Center has had formal staffing for almost 15 years, said senior counselor Sybil Pressprich. Before then it was coordinated by members, though whenever the coordinator found a job, it would become disorganized.

The group, which meets Tuesdays at 10 a.m., has had increased attendance since the recession hit, and, more noticeably, members keep coming back for longer periods of time.

“If you’re unemployed and having a tough time, it feels awful,” Pressprich said. “Being part of a group can be tremendously helpful.”

UNEMPLOYED? FOUR WAYS A JOB CLUB CAN HELP

1. Networking
U.S. Labor Department studies have found searching for a job through conventional methods, such as online sites, is far less effective than making connections with other people. Other people in a job club might know of job openings that don’t fit their qualifications, but fit yours.

2. Job skills
Whether polishing a resume or improving your interview presence, most job clubs offer a different topic each week to help participants hone their job-hunting skills. Some groups will bring in speakers or those who have successfully found work.

3. Motivation
Searching for a job is a full-time job, but with no other boss than yourself, it can be difficult to stay on task. “One of the problems with unemployment is people become isolated,” said Clara Nydam, president of Career Momentum. Job clubs often open with a check-up on the past week’s accomplishments and end with a commitment to new goals for the next week.

4. Emotional support
A job club can also be a support group as members commiserate about their frustrations. “For a male, losing his job is the second most emotional event they will go through except loss of spouse or child,” said Bob Shimmel, who helped found the Madison Area Job Transition Program through Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on Madison’s Southwest Side.