The parties are gatherings where unemployed people can network and get help applying for jobs, and now they’re coming to Johnston County.

“It’s a way to work with displaced professionals in local areas,” said Mike Young, a financial planner who has helped host two of the parties in Clayton and Durham.

Young and John Pulleyn, another planner at Parrish, Pulleyn & Young, teamed up with Theresa Murphy and Michele Langley, the founders of a new Raleigh human-resources firm, to get the movement started in Johnston.

“We’re not in this to sell our businesses,” Murphy said. “This is a way we can give back as professionals so others can get started on the right foot.”

Young first got the idea when he read about New York City pink-slip parties, where the newly unemployed paid for food, drinks and job-search help.

“I thought, we can do that here, minus all the fees,” he said.

Last month, he and Pulleyn met the women from the human-resources firm, and they immediately hit it off. Three of the four had served in the Army, and all seem to be born power-networkers, right down to their well-practiced handshakes.

So far, the group has hosted a party in Clayton and one in Durham, with more than 20 people attending the Clayton event. Their timing couldn’t be better; the Employment Security Commission has reported that the Johnston County jobless rate reached 10.7 percent in February, the highest since it hit 11.6 percent in June 1982.

“We’re finding some of these folks out of work for 18 months and some just laid off at an age where they haven’t been unemployed for 20 years,” said Murphy, of HR Partner Advantage. “We try to educate them, bring them into the 21st century.”

Lance Bush, a graphic designer in Fuquay-Varina, worked his last day in December. Since then, networking and job hunting have become a full-time affair for Bush, sometimes lasting from early in the morning until 9:30 p.m. He had attended countless pow-wows, church groups, meet-ups and expos, but said the Clayton pink-slip party was one of the best.

“It was one of the most positive events I’ve been to since I’ve been networking,” he said. “Not a negative thing was said; it was just amazing how good you felt when you left this event.”

The two women helped party-goers update their resumes and learn more about networking, while Young and Pulleyn gave money tips.

“You need to sit down and face the reality that you might be unemployed for six months,” Young said.

In a normal market, a worker might expect to find a new job in three months, or even shorter during a boom.

“We got so used to people transitioning like that,” he said, snapping his fingers.

So far, the group has reached out through Web sites like inside919.com, a Raleigh-centric bulletin board, but they hope to draw in people from all around Johnston County as they host more parties.

At the Clayton party, guests were still asking questions and talking long after the scheduled ending. After the session, several people found leads or even a little work.

In fact, Bush picked up a freelance job designing business cards for Murphy and Langley.

The keys to employment include a strong resume and a 30-second “elevator speech” to wow hiring managers, the group says. And by networking, job hunters can reach hundreds more people; a prospective employer could be just a phone call away. Above all, the sessions try to promote optimistic confidence.

“[Young] said something that really stuck with me,” Bush said. “It’s all in how you mentally look at what’s going on; is your cup half-full or half-empty? I’d like to thing that mine’s half-full.”

The next party is from 3 till 5 p.m. today (April 22) at Parrish, Pulleyn and Young, 501 Gateway Drive, Clayton. For more information, call John Pulleyn at 926-1778.