Job seekers flock to center

GLENDALE — The Verdugo Job Center on Tuesday reported a sharp spike in job seekers last month, a byproduct of skyrocketing gasoline prices and a crushing housing crisis that has forced thousands to search for work, officials said.

In May, the employment center reported 7,000 clients, 3,000 of whom were first-time visitors to the center. Last year at the same point, the center reported 5,000 clients, manager Judith Sernas said.

“We’ve seen quite a jump,” Sernas said. “Some are looking for a second job, others are recently laid off and looking for training.”

Shadowing the rise in job seekers is Glendale’s unemployment rate, which is now 5.6%, a nearly 1% jump from the same point last year, officials said.

“That’s a pretty unusually high spike in the unemployment rate,” said Don Nakamoto, Glendale’s labor market specialist. “It’s very similar to the L.A. County increase, the California increase and the national increase.”

Los Angeles County’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.7% in May, up from 5.9% in April and 4.9% in May 2007. California’s unemployment rate rose by 1.5% from May 2007 to 6.8% this year, according to the county’s Employment Development Department.

“A lot of that is reflecting the economic slowdown, the rise in oil prices and the drop in consumer confidence,” Nakamoto said. “Locally, there are some impacts from the sub-prime [housing] issue.”

Those working in the banking and mortgage industries, in Glendale and the county at large, are among those hit the hardest by the economic slowdown, he said.

Nearly 7,000 people in Los Angeles County lost finance and insurance jobs, and 10,700 lost construction jobs in May, according to a report released Monday by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.

Officials are also concerned that another media-related strike could cripple the region, just as Burbank and Glendale are beginning to recover from the three-month Writers Guild of America strike that cost the state $2.1 billion in lost wages and production.

The Screen Actors Guild is currently negotiating with studios to hammer out a new contract before it expires on Monday.

“The county’s job picture is being destabilized by the June 30 expiration of the Screen Actors Guild contract,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.