The campers began to pitch their tents in front of the WorkSource Skagit building on the evening of Nov. 23.

By the time the office’s custodians noticed them, there were 16 tents, and people were cooking hot dogs on a small grill.

They lined up following an announcement that the state-run employment agency would take 200 applications for six job openings at the Tesoro Refinery, on Nov. 24-25 and again on Nov. 30.

After taking note of the burgeoning tent city outside the WorkSource offices on East College Way in Mount Vernon, the custodian called WorkSource Skagit Administrator Brian Humphrey at home.

“By 7 a.m., the line was wrapped around the building,” Humphrey said.

Humphrey estimated that as many as 400 people arrived at the local branch of the Employment Security Department for the applications on that November day, but he said more could have arrived and turned around once they saw the line. He said he’s never seen anything like it at WorkSource. He compared the crowd to a line of people waiting to get concert tickets.

He found many people in line who simply showed up to look for jobs that morning and assumed it was the line to get in the building.

It’s an indicator of what job seekers are facing right now, especially those with minimal skills. There are far more people looking for labor jobs than there are jobs to fill.

WorkSource has seen a flood of people in 2009. From January to August, 1,182 different people came into the WorkSource Skagit office each month looking for services. That’s up 44 percent from the same time period in 2008.

Humphrey said the major difference between this year and last is the newcomers. WorkSource Skagit is serving many more people who have never received unemployment help before. From January to August this year, WorkSource served 3,284 people total who had never received services, 43 percent more than the same period in 2008.

“They’ve never been laid off. They’ve always had steady work,” Humphrey said.

Some industries have been harder hit than others.

Construction jobs in Skagit County dropped 21.6 percent in 2009, following a 5.6 percent drop in 2008. Construction had been growing or staying steady from 2000 to 2006, outpacing almost every other employment sector. But then it dropped farther and faster than government, retail and manufacturing sectors.

Manufacturing jobs are down 10.6 percent so far in 2009.

The result is a large pool of unemployed construction and manual laborers vying for a small pool of openings.

There are 18 carpenters looking for work for every one carpentry job available in Skagit, Whatcom, Island and San Juan counties, according to Employment Security. Carpentry has the highest worker-to-position ratio of any employment sector the department tracked.

Second is construction labor, which has 12 workers looking for work for every available job. Following construction laborers is plumbers, truck drivers and electricians.

Health care and education showed the opposite trend. There are more jobs than job hunters in those sectors.

For every 10 registered nursing positions available, there is fewer than one person in the four-county region looking for that kind of job. For every 10 elementary school teacher positions available, there are just three teachers searching for work.

Still, about half of the job sectors studied by Employment Security had more people looking for work than available jobs.

Sarah Thom, 31, of Sedro-Woolley started her job search this summer after her candy shop closed in Mount Vernon. Most employers never replied to her applications. She finally had her first interview in early December.

Just getting out of bed to start looking for a job was difficult, especially at first, Thom said.

“The first few weeks are tough, because you’re kind of thrown in, and you’re not really sure what to do,” she said.

WorkSource has started providing support groups at some offices, so people can network while getting encouragement to keep looking for a job.

These programs are being created and expanded in Bellingham and Island County, as well.

CJ Seitz, northwest area director for Employment Security, said 60 people showed up to a group called Job Club in Bellingham one night in December.

The real question that remains is: When will jobs become available? Seitz was encouraged by November’s lower jobless rate statewide. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the state dipped to 9.2 percent from 9.3 percent the previous month.

“We are hoping that that bodes well for the future,” Seitz said. “But that may not necessarily translate into more jobs and people getting hired.”

Skagit County’s nonseasonally adjusted rate jumped up in November more than a full percentage point, to 10.4 percent.

Joe Giannamore, regional economist for Employment Security, said no one can predict what will happen. He said every agency publishing studies and predictions about the rebound has no special information. They’re just looking at past recessions.

Giannamore said this recession is like no other in recent history.

“Economic forecasting models are inherently unreliable,” he said. “You go further out than three months, it’s really a guess.”

Giannamore said the recession in the early 2000s can be attributed to the Internet bubble popping, and the recession in the 1980s was tied to government action that drove up inflation and interest rates.

“This recession is definitely market-based,” Giannamore said. “It’s fully based on what happened in the housing market and the financial market.”

He said that ultimately, banks are still holding toxic assets and not giving out loans.

“Until that is fixed, there’s not going to be any borrowing to build houses and borrowing to construct a business,” Giannamore said. “That’s why it’s so deep and pervasive.”

The only thing that’s certain, Giannamore said, is that construction work cannot rebound until the housing market does. Manufacturing jobs are worse, he said. When a manufacturing plant shuts down, it’s gone for good.

Those jobs may never return, Giannamore said.

* Aaron Burkhalter can be reached at 360-416-2141 or .

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