(MONEY Magazine) – For years, Robert Jackson, 47, and his wife Judy, 45, prided themselves on the comfortable life they built for their children Darrin, 23, Denise, 18, and Dena, 15, in southwest Houston. They fully expected that their $41,000 in savings would help send the kids to the best private colleges that wanted them. So in April 1986, when Robert, a $31,000-a-year senior accountant, was laid off by Tenneco after 17 years at the Houston-based natural gas and manufacturing giant, the couple was not especially alarmed. They assumed Judy's $40,000-a-year pay as an aide to a county commissioner would carry them until Robert got another job. They didn't count on this: despite his qualifications, he received only five interviews after sending out more than 100 resumes during three years of unemployment. Last July, out of frustration, he began working as a commissioned salesman for Gillespie Petroleum, a gas- and-oil distributor start-up. He has yet to earn any commissions. ''By this time next year, we're hoping Gillespie will have made it,'' says Judy. ''That's our prayer.'' While acknowledging that Houston's recession-wracked economy and his age hurt his job search, Jackson also believes that being a black man was the third strike against him. Unemployment statistics support his conclusion: when whites and blacks lose work, blacks are twice as likely to remain jobless for a year or longer. Particularly upsetting, he adds, was losing out on jobs that he thinks matched his credentials. For example, Houston's Aviation Department needed a supervisor to oversee an inventory control system like one he helped set up at Tenneco. ''I interviewed for the job but never heard back from them,'' he recalls. ''Not even a rejection letter.'' Undaunted, Jackson applied for another position there -- only to lose out to a black woman. That doesn't surprise him: ''Employers have figured out that they can hire one person and get two minorities -- a black and a woman.'' The loss of nearly half the family income has been devastating. Jackson hasn't bought a suit or a pair of shoes since his layoff. Still, the last of the couple's savings got used up two years ago, and they could no longer afford the $12,000 a year to send Darrin to Morehouse College in Atlanta. Darrin had to enroll instead at Texas Southern University, a less prestigious school in Houston, but one that charges only $500-a-semester tuition. Grant applications for Denise were denied because Judy Jackson's salary was too high. With help from Denise's grandparents, however, the Jacksons just managed to send her to Howard University in Washington, D.C. for her freshman year. But there's no money for her sophomore year. And the debts keep piling up. Unavoidable expenses such as keeping Jackson's 1982 Buick Park Avenue on the road (despite its 150,000 miles) have pushed the family's Visa and MasterCard balances to $4,100. A dejected Robert Jackson says, ''I don't think we'll ever get back to where we were financially.'' -- W.L.U.