SOUTH BEND ‒ Is the recession getting better, worse, or are things the same as this time last year?

Last spring, WSBT brought you Faces of the Unemployed -- local people who'd just lost their job or had been out of work for some time. Dennis Contat was one of them. For his family, this year is better.

“Who's going to hire a 60-year-old?” was the first thing engineer Dennis Contat asked when Syscon International in South Bend laid him off last February.

“Most people would look at it and say, ‘Well, he's going to retire in two years anyway,’” said Dennis

As Dennis began a new job search, he and his wife switched roles. Former Mishawaka teacher Annette contact came out of retirement to substitute teach, and Dennis stayed home to babysit their grandchildren. It’s something they still do. Annette stopped teaching May 27 when the school year ended. And just two days later, Dennis got a call, from his old boss.

“He says ‘We need you back three days a week to do your old job,’ and I said ‘You know, I'm not doing anything else,’” said Dennis.

And Syscon was thrilled to be able to start rehiring.

“Oh, it's a pleasure,” said Townsend Thomas, president of Syscon. “These are friends as well as employees, so when they're out of work, you hurt as well.”

Dennis is back to full-time working on the computers that monitor plastics plants around the country. And his wife is enjoying retirement.

“I just think we get along a lot better when he's at work,” said Annette.

They consider themselves lucky, and want to say to everyone else out there, “Don't give up hope.”

“You keep your head up, you keep your spirits up,” said Dennis. “You can't get down on this. I think that's what hurts the most.”

Dennis says there's no way to know where he will be 12 months from now, but his employer hopes to see substantial growth this year and is looking for field installers right now.