Numbers tell the story: 900 jobs, 76,400 unemployed

By Brian Eckhouse

Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008 | 2 a.m.

A line of 100 people snaked around the public jobs office in Las Vegas before it opened at 8 a.m. on Monday. It happened again Tuesday. Wednesday, too.

“This is my second home,” says Kelly Temple, 54, who estimates she spends two hours a day there. She was laid off seven months ago from a lumber company, where she was a sales coordinator.

About 2,300 people flooded the JobConnect building on Maryland Parkway south of Desert Inn Road the week of Nov. 17. Another 1,700 visited the North Las Vegas location and 755 went to the Henderson office.

Ron Fletcher, who oversees the local offices for the state, hasn’t seen lines this long since he headed the North Las Vegas bureau in 1994. “Our situation is worsening,” says the chief of field direction and management for the Nevada Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Department.

The last week of November, there were about 900 openings listed at the three area JobConnect offices. About 76,400 people in Southern Nevada are jobless.

“In an orientation, we were told, if anybody offers you a job to take it,” says Thomas Blaquelourde, 52, who hopes for a clerical position in a law office.

David Miller, 34, knows the struggle — and mounting competition — for a precious job more than most. He’s been looking for a mechanic’s or machinist’s job for a year, after he returned from a long Army National Guard tour in Iraq.

Being a veteran is beneficial — JobConnect, a service he’s been using for the past month, places a premium on military service — but he doesn’t own the tools needed for many of these jobs, so he’s been on the outside looking in.

His bank account is emptying as he pays support for two children, rent that he can no longer afford and monthly bills on his $12,000 in credit card debt.

Anna Caputo, an employment counselor at the Las Vegas JobConnect, pores over job listings with Miller. Republic Services, the garbage hauler, needs a mechanic, but Miller doesn’t have tools for that job, either. There’s a $25-an-hour position as a driver, but he doesn’t have a commercial driver’s license.

One job seems like a decent fit, as a door fabricator in Henderson. The next listing pays well and has full benefits — with the possibility of overtime — but he’s already ruled it out. It requires experience on a lathe, which he doesn’t have.

Fletcher learns of Miller’s struggle and asks a Veterans counselor to provide him with further individual assistance.

Among others seeking help at JobConnect offices last week:

• Pilar Grey, 41, who four months ago was let go after four years as a patient receptionist at a medical imaging company. She’s visited JobConnect offices every week since, and has applied for 25 jobs. She contacted area hospitals on her own and is hopeful she’ll be able to get an interview at the U.S. Census Bureau for an office clerk job.

• Lenda Robbins, 64, who screened passengers at McCarran International Airport until her retirement 18 months ago. She needs to return to work after the value of her investments portfolio dropped 30 percent. She frets that her age will be a detriment as she competes for clerical positions with younger applicants, and recognizes she may have a six-month search before her.

• Jim Hairfield, 70, an industrial engineer who recently lost his job. He has the same fear as Robbins: “No matter what they say, there are prejudices out there. Who wants to hire me if they can hire a 25-year-old?”

• George West, 42, who lost his real estate office job in mid-October and works just eight hours a week as a security guard at a lounge on the Strip. He’s inquired about work at other clubs, but the ones he’s visited aren’t hiring. He continues to check the job boards in Henderson.