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After the shock and the commiserations, Boris Pan's unemployed life began on Tuesday with a shot of optimism.

The senior account manager for Fjord Interactive had fended off a recruiter just one week earlier. Maybe he could segue into a new opportunity without missing a rent payment on his Bathurst-St. Clair apartment.

But the recruiter quickly shot such hopes down in flames: Those offers were off the table, no other jobs were on the horizon, and Mr. Pan had joined a growing pool of unemployed marketing and advertising workers.

“He gave me a dose of reality,” Mr. Pan said Friday. “He gave me some realistic but sobering advice, and that was when I started to get a little bit more worried.”

Advertising and marketing budgets are often the first casualties in an economic slowdown.

If the economy doesn't improve – and certainly that's the current situation – hundreds of jobs are next.

So when a Toronto advertising agency this week asked companies each to send them one project, with the work then farmed out to unemployed workers, news of it spread through the industry like wildfire.

“We wanted to bring the advertising and marketing community together to take care of its own, because nobody's going to come and bail us out,” said Chris Hall, one of three partners in Huxley Quayle von Bismark.

“We all mentioned it on our Facebook pages, and boom.”

Hundreds of people have visited the Just One Project website since its launch on Wednesday. Mr. Pan was sent a link to the site by a friend, and immediately sent off his own résumé in a bid to “stay in the game.

“As I'm mentally trying to prepare myself for the potential reality [of a long layoff], the more you can circulate yourself by doing freelance work, the better off you are,” he said.

Dozens of people from all levels of the industry have sent résumés.

The challenge now is to find them work. Projects would cost $125 an hour, with $100 going to the unemployed worker and $25 to Huxley Quayle von Bismark for management expenses.

Two companies have shown keen interest, but others are less impressed: Some advertising agencies have accused them of unfair competition, and corporate clients have said they're loath to try a new team.

But Mr. Hall and his partners, Andy Shortt and Mark Tawse-Smith, say the Just One Project is a win-win: Clients get highly experienced workers at short notice, and unemployed professionals get much-needed income.

“We all got in this business because it's fascinating and fun, and it's not that fun right now,” Mr. Hall said.

By donating a project, the industry can help people get through the rough patch “and [then] go back to beating each other up for the next project,” he said.

The goodwill and PR for the independent ad firm won't go astray either, they admit, but first and foremost, the men say their concern lies with unemployed colleagues.

“We'd been contacted over the last couple of months from many, many people who lost their jobs and are looking for work. We're not people without heart,” Mr. Shortt said.

“At some point, somebody has to stand up. If we come together as an industry, maybe we can help people through this.”

For now, though, Mr. Pan considers this week a surprise holiday, albeit one that involves paring down his cable subscription, updating his résumé and switching to a cheaper cellphone plan.

And next week, he'll get back to business pounding the virtual pavement.

“Being laid off liberates you in some ways because it forces you to make some key decisions about how you want to develop your career,” he said. “The stressful thing is not really about myself. It's telling my mom. She's a worrier.”

The personal economy is a series that looks at people in the Toronto region coping with the economic downturn. To share your story, write Tenille Bonoguore at tbonoguore@globeandmail.com