Without his wife's income, said the Mililani father of two, "We would have been out on the street."
With the help of the nonprofit organization Forty Plus of Hawaii, he recently found a job as operations manager at Elsafe Hawaii Inc. But it wasn't easy, and it meant taking a 20 percent pay cut.
"Initially, I thought it wouldn't be that bad," he said. "I thought maybe in two or three months I would find something. I hoped the economy would improve. But it didn't."
A tight job market and tough competition from younger applicants willing to settle for less kept him at bay. Like other management-level workers in midlife transition, Yasuoka had to tighten his belt, and his expectations.
Phil Whitney, president of Forty Plus Hawaii, says competition is stiff these days because of companies downsizing, merging, or turning to temporary workers. But age is not a limiting factor, he insists.
"We don't talk about age and finding employment," he said. "These people can compete because they have experience."
Preparation - a polished resume and positive attitudes are among the keys, he said.
Somewhat apprehensive about finding a new career after 40, however, is Judith Wilson, a Kaneohe woman who took early retirement from her high-level position at a Honolulu hospital in 1994.
The former director of community relations carefully guards her age, fearing it won't help in her continuing search.
After fruitless and humiliating experiences with employment agencies, help-wanted ads, and corporate headhunters, she also turned to the all-volunteer Forty Plus.
Being unemployed, she said, has been "an awesome experience." Her tight finances paint a sobering picture.
"I don't have a social life that costs money," she said. "I don't join anything that costs money. That limits the kinds of friendships I make, so I feel socially very stifled. I do a lot of volunteer work - that has become my social life."
Wilson is among thousands of white collar workers in Hawaii collecting unemployment insurance. According to state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, about a third of the average 15,000 people collecting unemployment checks in 1995 - the most recent figure available - were over the age of 45. About 3,000 of them sought work in professional or management fields.
Debra Robello, owner of Career Connections, Inc., is a corporate headhunter hired by companies to find top-level employees. She looks mainly in the 30-to-40 age bracket, where there is "still some mileage."
This under-40 market offers college-educated workers with experience in their fields.
"Companies want to get some returns back," she said.
Former banker Scott Henry, who was jobless for about a year, blames the economy and an increasingly competitive atmosphere.
"There's very little left of the old concept of employee-employer loyalty," said Henry, 60, now manager of the Meadow Gold Dairies Federal Credit Union in Honolulu.
Five years ago, after 28 years with a major bank in southern California, he was let go with scores of other employees.
"It's amazing how fast your savings can go," he said, recalling the many months he spent searching for work. A frugal lifestyle helped him get by.
Now earning half his former salary, Henry says times have changed.
"Back when I got out of college, what you did was go to work for a big company and with experience you went up the ladder. Everybody took care of everybody. That's not so any more."
At the small downtown office of Forty Plus, ex-serviceman Ric Parrish joins a group of other midlife job seekers in a daily routine of practicing interviews, polishing resumes, and networking in the nearby business community.
Parrish, 46 and recently retired from the Air Force, is looking for "anything in operations or financial management."
"I eat a lot of tuna fish and crackers," he said. But Parrish lives alone and has a military pension to help him get by.
"I approach job searching as a job. I work at it five, sometimes six days a week."
Steven Cushman, 42, also spends much of his time at Forty Plus. He's a recently retired Navy man with a wife and two grown children, and a degree in accounting. And he's looking for a job.
"I'm doing a complete transition from the military into public accounting," he said.
"Before I came down here, I spent a lot of time at home - watching TV," he said. "It was depressing. Coming here gets me up and out of the house. That's important."
What: Career placement for over-40 managers and professionals