Advertisements for home-employment opportunities, typically buried in the classifieds of local newspapers and supermarket tabloids, promise fortunes to be made from the comfort of one's home. Make big money, the ads claim, from light assembly work, envelope stuffing, crafts sewing, typing and coupon clipping.

With unemployment hovering at 7.7 percent in Cook County, some job seekers, like Johnson, turn to home-based work as an employer of last resort. Others look to work-at-home jobs to supplement income from full-time employment; still others want relief from the 9-to-5 routine. Whatever the reason, many people find the financial rewards disappointing.

Grace Felger, a Midlothian mother of four, agrees the road to financial freedom, promised in many ads, is actually a dead end. Felger, who has entered and left the home-employment job circuit many times over the last 40 years, has found "a lot of scams." Felger has tried typing, ironing, selling lingerie and making sales calls from her home. Most recently, she tried clipping coupons.