Skilled Workers Among Elk Grove's Recently Unemployed

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics won’t release its state-by-state jobs report for June until Friday, but the faces of Elk Grove’s recently unemployed can already be seen at the Sacramento Works South County Career Center.

Take Gary Merkel, for example. He was laid off June 30 from his job as a technical educator for the Elk Grove Unified School District, which isn’t that unusual. But what makes Merkel atypical is that he has a bachelor’s degree in finance and has been laid off 14 times in his career as a computer installer and technician.

“It’s demoralizing,” said Merkel, 62, a South Sacramento resident, as he scanned the computer screen for job openings at the center on Gerber Road, run by Elk Grove Adult & Community Education.

He believes the economy and his age are factors in his joblessness. He previously worked as a computer technician for POS Resources in Rancho Cordova, which went bankrupt in February 2009. Merkel picked up a job with the school district to tide him over, but was let go recently because of budget cuts.

“It’s embarrassing what I made: $15.89 an hour,” he said of his job with the school district.

Merkel isn’t alone. An estimated 5,000 Elk Grove residents are out of work, according to the county Employment Development Department. Justin Wehner, a labor market consultant for the EDD, said the local construction and financing sectors, including mortgage banking and lending, have been hit hard by layoffs.

Retail slumps, healthcare hiring picks up

The recession and resulting layoffs also caused retail trade in the area to slump, leading to further job loss.

“Once people started losing their homes, they can’t buy things for their homes, so we saw those job openings go down,” Wehner said.

On the other hand, the healthcare segment has been performing well, Wehner said.

“Kaiser and Sutter Health are strong companies expanding into the Elk Grove community,” he said. “With the baby boomer population getting older, the demand for healthcare goes up. Occupational data shows a lot of the top projected jobs in the next 10 years will be healthcare-related, like home health aides.”

According to the latest available numbers from the EDD, the area of Elk Grove east of Highway 99 has a labor force of 34,100, of which 3,300 are unemployed, making the community’s jobless rate 9.6 percent. A slightly smaller 6.4 percent of Laguna’s 19,800-strong labor force is out of work, along with 8.4 percent of the 5,100 workers in Laguna West.

Job center 'busting at the seams'

Juanita Sendejas-Lopez, site supervisor at Sacramento Works, said the center has been bustling with job seekers.

“On some days, we are busting at the seams,” she said.

The center serves 6,000 people a year, but Sendejas-Lopez has noticed the faces of the clients have changed since the economic recession struck the area in 2009. The job seekers are more educated, older, have more experience and have been laid off after more years in their positions, she said.

“We see people from all walks of life, some people with degrees,” she said. “We have people coming in with bachelor’s degrees, master’s, even PhDs. Some are new out of college.”

Sendejas-Lopez is also helping more people with specialized skills, giving a peek into which industries suffered during the recession.

“We’re seeing people from unusual fields, such as actuarial, or robotics,” she said. “We have people from IT backgrounds, banking, even chemists. These are not your typical administrative skills.”

The center saw an influx of jobless after recent layoffs at Wells Fargo Bank branches in the Sacramento area, along with a FedEx office and the AAA call center in Elk Grove. Verizon Wireless also had recent layoffs that sent job seekers to the career center’s doors.

From bank vice president to volunteer job counselor

Michele Adams of Elk Grove was a vice president at Placer-Sierra Bank in downtown Sacramento,when the bank was acquired by Wells Fargo in 2008 and her position was phased out. The bank offered her a position in Los Angeles, but she took a buyout.

“That was a stressful time for me,” Adams said. “When you’ve never been unemployed, it’s devastating. Your life changes when you go from a six-figure salary to zero.”

She was hired in October 2010 by WindCrest Realty Group to be a governmental affairs liaison, but when state budget cuts eliminated the government positions she would be working with, Adams lost her job again in April.

She now volunteers at the career center, coaching clients who are looking for jobs.

“It’s rewarding, and it’s allowing me to consider other occupations,” she said of her volunteer work.

The center is now noticing increased interest in hiring from Frito-Lay’s distribution center in West Sacramento, Siemens, Panda Express, Golden 1 Credit Union and temporary staffing agencies, with many businesses planning career workshops or hiring events at the center.

“Even in these hard times with layoffs, we’re also seeing some hiring prospects,” Sendejas-Lopez said. “Some of our clients have been unemployed for more than a year. The people who are finding jobs are hustling every day.”