Gloria Christ is hoping a temp agency can help her find a job — even one for which she may be overqualified.

CHICAGO — After losing their jobs, Greg and Gloria Christ drove through office parks, jotting down names of potential employers. Eventually they tried a more direct route to getting work: a temp agency.

“At this point in time, I think even if there was something that was temporary it could become full time later on,” said Gloria Christ, a former customer service professional with years of managerial experience.

As the economy continues to struggle, more unemployed workers with professional experience are willing to take jobs for which they are overqualified, experts say.

In the Chicago area, for example, temporary agencies report being flooded — and not just with recent graduates or retirees looking for part-time gigs. People who should be at the pinnacle of their careers also are flocking to their doors, said Janet Sloan, president of Seville Staffing.

“What I have seen is the increase in prime-aged individuals who are actively seeking just about anything,” she said. “There is definitely an increase in qualified candidates.”

It’s hard to say how many people are overqualified for their jobs. Those workers aren’t calculated in the Department of Labor’s underemployment rate, which spiked to 13.9 percent in January, said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.

Only the unemployed are included with people who have recently given up their job searches and those who would prefer full-time work to their part-time jobs.

Although not measured in federal data, overqualification is a form of underemployment and very much on the rise, Shierholz said. “When you have productive, hardworking people who can’t maximize their potential, the productivity the economy would have gotten from them is gone,” she said. “It disappeared. You can never get it back.”

‘I’ve got to do whatever I can’

Among those taking the temp agency route is Damon Karras of Chicago, a former manager at an advertising marketing firm with six years of sales experience and a biology degree who has been out of work since October.

Months of searching for a position in such fields as the garment industry and pharmaceutical sales turned up nothing. So a few weeks ago, he found himself at a staffing agency taking a typing test, which is required to land a temporary clerical job.

“I’ve got to do whatever I can,” said Karras. “My rent alone is 1,500 bucks.”

That sentiment has been reverberating in temporary agencies, officials say.

“People are more than willing to try new occupations, much more willing than they were even a year ago,” said Anne Edmunds, regional director of Manpower for the Chicago area.

Said Sloan: “I can tell you we’ve had a licensed attorney come in and want temporary work as office support.”

Aaron Brooks, managing director of The Mergis Group’s Chicago office, said the employment agency used to have to recruit people who had more credentials, especially advanced degrees. These days he sees more candidates with MBAs and CPAs.

Many have never been out of a job and their credentials often work against them, he said. Although many professionals are willing to take a pay cut just to be employed, companies often turn away overqualified applicants for fear they will leave when the economy picks up, Brooks said.

“You sometimes do sense some desperation in people,” he said.