Job center swamped by the unemployed

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

No one knows better than Lew Wymisner what unemployment feels like--and how a government stimulus program can help.

Wymisner is now assistant director of the Larimer County Workforce Center, but in 1978 he was unemployed himself. He qualified, based on income guidelines, for a federal job-creation program called CETA, or the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act.

The program was intended to train people in marketable skills, so they could move to unsubsidized jobs. CETA provided full-time jobs for a limited time in public agencies or private nonprofits and also subsidized a summer youth program.

For Wymisner, CETA was the break he needed. He was placed with the local CETA office itself, the Workforce Center's predecessor, and his supervisors liked him and his work. When the government program ended, he was hired on full time by the county. Thirty years later, he works for essentially the same agency, although both the name and the building have changed several times.

With that history, it's easy to see why Wymisner says, "We're waiting for the stimulus package."

Even with all the back-to-work programs offered at the Workforce Center, he defines the current situation this way: "There are no jobs." He's banking on the federal stimulus dollars coming to Colorado (about $2 billion) to give hope--and jobs--to many of the thousands who are waiting.

The stimulus package will direct $33.5 million to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment for several different programs, including a summer youth program.

Long lines

Things are different this year at the Workforce Center. Since right after the holidays the office has been "wall to wall" with people looking for jobs, said employment center manager Maureen Harter. An additional staff member will be coming on board soon to help with the crush.

"Every week we're breaking records," Wymisner said.

Last year, the computer lab was full only at peak times of the day. Now it's always full, and eight more computers were installed last month. Previously, there was no line to talk to the person at the front desk. Now the line snakes into the hallway, where the staff has installed a coffee station to make the wait a little more bearable.

For people wanting to file for unemployment benefits, there are additional frustrations. "It's almost impossible to get through on the phone line," Wymisner said. "A three-hour wait is not unusual."

He encourages people to use the Colorado Department of Labor web site, www.coworkforce.com, to file. Even that requires patience, he said.

In the last few months, Harter pointed out, new programs have been initiated that allow some people to extend their unemployment benefits beyond the standard 26 weeks.

Many impacts

Wymisner sympathizes with the legions of the unemployed now seeking assistance at the Workforce Center - numbers that are growing as the economy worsens. "They've lost jobs through no fault of their own," he said.

And, losing a job can create so many other problems in a person's life. "For many, work is their identify," Wymisner pointed out. "It's a grief experience when they lose a job."

In addition, most people living on unemployment insurance can't make ends meet. The maximum unemployment benefit is $475 per week, and that's for people who were earning $49,000 or more. The average benefit in Colorado is just $340 per week. "That's a big comedown" in income, Wymisner noted.

When a person loses a job, suddenly there are many additional expenses, such as paying for health insurance through COBRA. Many can't afford that premium in addition to house payments, utility bills and gas for the car. The new stimulus package will subsidize some of those COBRA costs.

There are also costs associated with looking for work, such as gas, phone and monthly Internet fees. Some end up losing their homes, or their utilities are shut off, or their marriages are in trouble.

Unemployment up

Wymisner said economic conditions are the worst he has seen, "and we haven't hit bottom yet." Many agree this is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Larimer County, like the rest of the country, shed jobs by the hundreds in 2008. Martin Shields, an economist at Colorado State University, said there were 1,600 fewer jobs in the Fort Collins/Loveland area at the end of '08 than the same time in 2007. In 2008, unemployment in the area rose from 3.7 percent to 4.9 percent.

In Colorado as a whole, the unemployment rate at the end of 2008 was 5.1 percent, compared with 3.8 percent at the end of 2007. Nationwide, unemployment increased from 6.8 to 7.2 percent in December.

What's more, over the last several years highly paid manufacturing jobs in Colorado have been lost and replaced by low-wage retail jobs. Since 2000, Wymisner said, 5,000 to 6,000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared in Larimer County alone.

The Workforce Center is serving many people who are unemployed for the first time in their lives, including people who were highly paid CEOs or CFOs. "There's no wage or status that's immune from layoffs," said Harter.

One woman who had worked for the same employer for 24 years was laid off recently and came to the center for assistance. Unaccustomed to needing help, she didn't know how unemployment insurance worked. She thought she would have to pay a premium for it, like other insurance. "She was overwhelmed" by the new experience, said Harter.

Wymisner is an advocate for government stimulus programs. "People say these programs can't work," he said, but noted that when he was hired through CETA, he spent his wages locally, rolling the stimulus dollars back into the economy. Also, he said, when people are employed under a stimulus program it helps them find other jobs later when the economy improves.

"If a program doesn't work, clamp down on it, but don't dismiss government programs as worthless or a waste of money," Wymisner said.

Although Wymisner is a magician in his spare time, he's been unable to find a magic wand that will create and restore jobs in Larimer County. He's hoping that the federal stimulus money will do just that