Job Front: State funding cuts may hit Job Club
dvsmith@sacbee.com
Published Monday, Jun. 08, 2009
In one room, they've begun amassing the tools that will relaunch their job searches. They're building résumés and learning interviewing skills, doing searches online and creating e-mail accounts so they can more easily connect with potential employers.
In another, clients such as Sacramentans Romelia Martinez and Keyana Brady are putting those skills to work at Job Club, a six-week job-readiness program of Sacramento County's Department of Human Assistance.
Like many programs, public and private, Job Club offers training, career counseling and other services. But the Job Club – part of the state welfare-to-work program CalWORKs – may face elimination as California tries to solve its budget crisis.
About 2,100 people in Sacramento County went through the program in 2008, referred by aid workers. With joblessness growing, officials said the numbers have climbed more than 5 percent this year.
"They're all in the same place. … They want the basics. They want a job," said county employment specialist Beverly Pilas..
Pilas tries to keep the state's budget woes – and Job Club's fate – out of her mind.
"I deal with the way things are," she said. "I can't change yesterday. I can only do things today to make tomorrow better."
Pilas has been with the Department of Human Assistance for 30 years and with Job Club through its 12-year history.
In a large, nondescript building at Stockton Boulevard and Lawrence Drive, Martinez, a mother of five, is looking for an outside job after the last 13 years as a homemaker. Her job search began last month at Job Club after her husband lost his job in construction. He picks fruit now, but the money isn't enough to sustain the family.
"I hadn't worked in 13 years, so they've helped update my résumé," Martinez said. "I'm learning how to use computers. They've taught me things that, in 13 years, I didn't know were possible."
Brady, with two young children and on aid since 2007, was on the verge of homelessness two months ago. Today, she's got a roof over her head, and, through Job Club, child care. Finding a job is the next step.
On Tuesday, Brady said she had lined up leads and was excited about the prospect.
"I'm set up for three interviews today. I want to find the right job," she said..
Networking helps land a job
Elizabeth Luttrell-Feder has a new job. The Gold River woman, who lost her job as a career counselor in January, spoke about the importance of friends and networking in these pages last month as she navigated her job search.
Today, she's entering her first month of a summer assignment as a case manager for Sacramento County, working with at-risk youth in a program funded by an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant. The summer program at Leo Palmiter Junior and Senior High School teaches youths job and life skills.
A longtime colleague who is now a program specialist with the county saw Luttrell-Feder's photo in the May 2 story ("Newly unemployed need friends to lean on") and gave her a call telling her of the opening.
In the May story, Luttrell-Feder said contact with employed friends, whether it's with a cup of coffee or the occasional phone call or e-mail, pays off.
"Networking is a big word," she said. "When you get laid off, stay in touch."
Hiring plans cut back
Hiring managers and recruiters are cutting back on their hiring plans, even as it appears Americans are becoming more optimistic about the economy.
That conclusion is from a survey of human resources professionals released by Dice Holdings Inc., a company that hosts a variety of job-related Web sites. The e-mail survey of nearly 1,900 hiring managers was conducted the week of May 18.
"People definitely feel better about the economy, but that has yet to translate into an increase in hiring plans," Scot Melland, chief executive officer of Dice Holdings, told Job Front.
In the West, hard hit by the housing crisis, more than four in 10 employers said they had "substantially" dialed down hiring efforts.
Job fair Wednesday
A job fair is scheduled Wednesday at the Scottish Rite Center, 6151 H St. in Sacramento.
The free fair, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., is sponsored by Employmentguide.com and will feature 20 employers, including businesses and state and local agencies.
For information, call 
(800) 244-0353
or visit
www.sacramento. employmentguide.com.
Contact us
We want to hear about jobs. Is your company hiring? Is your organization hosting a career fair? Is your campus rolling out a job skills program? Let us know at dvsmith@sacbee.com.
Call The Bee's Darrell Smith, (916) 321-1040.
Comment: This will be yet another sign of the official insanity
that has seized the so-called leaders of Sacramento City-County
if they let this employment search program fall apart.
Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez ~aka: Peta
Sacramento, California, Aztlan
Yahoo Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com
http://anhglobal.ning.com/group/humanerightsagenda
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetworkAztlan_News/
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