MOUNT VERNON — Machel Hill has worked in a man’s world all her life.

She grew up raising farm animals, with her father encouraging her to pursue her dreams.

Hill took his advice to heart. Throughout her life she worked on firefighter crews, on farms and most recently as a construction manager.

But when Hill, 54, was laid off from her job in July, for the first time she felt uncertain about her future.

“I was almost in tears not knowing what I was going to do,” she said. “I wasn’t finding anything with a livable wage.”

Instead, Hill decided to tap into her nurturing side. She is finishing the first semester of the culinary arts program at Skagit Valley College. Hill is one of more than 150 students at the college in the Worker Retraining program, which allows people in disappearing trades, called “dislocated workers,” to pursue degrees in growing fields.

As the economy slumps deeper into recession and unemployment increases, programs offering retraining, career counseling and job search assistance are in greater demand.

Laid-off software account executive Cynthia Griffin travels from Friday Harbor to WorkSource in Mount Vernon once a week to search for jobs and attend workshops. She wants to make her resume stand out.

With a ready smile and a can-do attitude, Griffin tries to stay positive.

“I think it’s going to be touch-and-go,” she said. “I’m trying to be as positive as possible. Hopefully it will be reflected in my letters.”

Lately the common spaces at WorkSource are more crowded, and she’s noticed.

“Given the economy, I wasn’t surprised,” she said.

WorkSource activity soars

September was a record month for WorkSource Skagit.

For the first time ever, the career center received more than 1,000 unique visitors in one month this September. In October, 1,117 people visited the center a total of nearly 2,395 times.

But those visits don’t necessarily translate to jobs, said Joe Giannamore, the regional labor economist for Northwest Washington with the state Employment Security Department.

Skagit County has had a net loss of 500 non-farm jobs in the past year, Giannamore said, mostly in retail, construction and manufacturing.

The number of people using WorkSource has reached such heights that those who use the employment center’s 16 computers are put on a two-hour time limit during busy periods. Officials have also added more job-seeker workshops into WorkSource’s already busy schedule.

WorkSource administrator Brian Humphrey said employers are skittish to hire in this uncertain economic climate, and those seeking jobs are taking longer to find gainful employment.

Though Skagit County and the rest of the Northwest lagged behind the country during the recession, Humphrey said this area is catching up.

“Last winter, if a person got laid off or chose to leave a job, they could get a job within a few days,” Humphrey said.

Helping the displaced

When a major layoff occurs, Emi Fredlund, a counselor at Skagit Valley College, is often one of the first people on the scene. Fredlund is part of a rapid response team, coordinated by the state’s Employment Security Department. The team rallies at the locations of major layoffs to help displaced workers navigate the often unfamiliar territory of unemployment payments and finding new work.

“People are very anxious to get information,” Fredlund said. “The workers are overwhelmed. It’s a lot of information to take in at one time.”

A wide variety of people are being laid off, from those at the top of the career ladder to those who never graduated high school. Some workers want to gain proficiency in English or receive a General Equivalency Diploma, Fredlund said.

After the shock of a layoff, many people look forward to their next steps, Fredlund said.

“People are very resilient,” she said. “They are apprehensive at first, and then they get very involved and excited. It’s very much fun to watch people get excited about launching themselves into a new career.”

No field appears to be laying off workers more than others, Humphrey said. Other than the health care industry, nobody appears to be hiring, either.

“A lot of the consumerism has contracted,” Humphrey said. “If they’re able to hold what they’re currently at, that’s a good thing.”

Humphrey said WorkSource Skagit has seen an explosion in dislocated workers, from three to four a week to more than 30 per week most recently.

Skilled boat makers used to be hard to find, Humphrey said. But boat makers flooded the job market after layoffs in Arlington.

Today, dislocated workers could wait weeks or even months to find jobs that match their skill sets. Many opt instead to train for careers in demand, as Hill did.

Laura Cailloux, the Dean of Workforce Education at Skagit Valley College, said enrollment has risen 5.4 percent in the past year. Distance learning has soared, up 23 percent, in the same time.

Many of the college’s students are part-time, Cailloux said. This fall, 1,300 professional and technical students attended class. To date the college is ahead of its goals for the number of Worker Retraining students, and students overall. The nursing program continues to have a wait list of more than a year, she said.

“Most of our classes right now are full or are running wait list,” she said, a change from a year ago.

But the state’s budget shortfall, and impending cuts to community college budgets, mean the college won’t be able to expand in-demand classes.

“With the wait lists, we can’t offer a second section even if there are students to fill the class because the money is not there,” Cailloux said.

Reinventing her skills

Before she went back to college, Machel Hill said her job searches only netted entry-level, low-wage jobs.

Unemployment only goes so far, Hill said, and her small Craftsman-style home near the fairgrounds seemed a little less secure.

“I don’t trust being able to keep that,” she said. “With my construction wages I was fine, but with unemployment I am faking it through.”

Hill said the retraining program has given her time to reinvent her skills, and herself.

“It gives you more time to regroup and brush up on your skills before going back out there,” she said.

Eventually, Hill wants to cook for oil field workers on the North Slope of Alaska.

Hill said she thinks she probably will lose her house anyway, but the prospect of moving to Alaska after the Spring term is a tantalizing tradeoff.

“I got laid off on the Fourth of July,” she said. “In a way, it was like independence day for me.”

Links:
WorkSource Skagit:  http://www.worksourcenorthwest.com/
For more information about Worker Retraining, visit http://www.skagit.edu and search for “worker retraining.”