Job Market

Glendale Community College officials on Friday announced that they would carry on with summer school despite state funding cuts after faculty members agreed to work the six-week session for 40% less pay. But the number of classes to be offered during the summer session will also be cut by 40% compared with last year, said Ron Nakasone, vice president of administrative services. The combination of pay cuts and fewer classes will save the cash-strapped college about $1 million, he said.

Armine Khudanyan left college in 2009 ready for a career in nursing. But despite hearing for years about a nursing shortage, what she and her fellow Cal State Los Angeles nursing graduates found was a bunch of closed doors. "In my graduating class there were 10 of us," said Khudanyan, 30, a native of Armenia who lives in Glendale. "Right out of school only three of us were able to get jobs. A lot of hospitals were not hiring, especially new grads." Through a Verdugo Workforce Investment Board program funded by federal stimulus money, Khudanyan landed a job she loves in the emergency room at Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center.

Home foreclosures in the region dipped slightly in May, with fewer homeowners struggling to make their payments, experts said. The number of default notices, sales at auction and bank repossessions in Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge and La Crescenta fell 2% in May from the month prior, from 377 to 369, according to the real estate tracking firm RealtyTrac. Compared with May of last year, the number of foreclosures in the area declined by 15%. Paul Habibi, a professor of real estate finance at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, said he expects to see a "flat housing environment" for the remainder of the year.

This spring, I have spoken with thousands of constituents during our "telephone town hall meetings." The issues raised ran the gamut from international policy to local concerns, like protecting the Angeles National Forest. The calls were a terrific give and take, and they reinforced what I have always strongly believed: Californians are passionate, involved, informed and optimistic. Along these lines, a few recent local stories perfectly capture the talent and promise of the Foothills, and I want to share them with you. As many of you know, I am fervent admirer and supporter of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Not far from the din of Bob Hope Airport, on a 22-acre Burbank campus near the Los Angeles border, Woodbury University quietly churns out graduates. Their training includes studies in architecture, animation, interior design, business and fine arts. Students come from around the world or as close to home as Riverside, Orange County, Glendale, Burbank and La Canada Flintridge. Of those many students, 364 graduated last weekend, fulfilling the dreams of some who never thought they would get that far. The graduation, like many before it, is a tribute to Woodbury's ability to adapt to academic preferences stemming from a changing economy and the job market in Burbank.

Be humble. Show gratitude. Show up on time. Do what you say. Finish what you start. Always say please and thank you. Don’t be stuck up. Have courage. These are some of the many lessons that Glendale businessman and American Diabetes Assn. advocate Barry Garapedian has made sure to teach his daughter, Melissa, 15, and son, Scotland, 12. The American Diabetes Assn. and the National Father’s Day Council will honor Garapedian with a Father of the Year Award at the 10th annual Father of the Year Awards today at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

I’ve been working with a private college, Mt. Sierra College in Monrovia, for the last 2 1/2 years. For the first two years, my involvement was consulting on marketing. For the last six months, however, I’ve been immersed in admissions as the department’s director. I wear the marketing hat as well. It’s been an interesting and challenging period in my life. I’ve probably learned more about life and people during this time than any other. I’ve been exposed to different personalities, a cross section of cultural backgrounds, as well as students and colleagues in different age groups.

For many people, 2009 was a year they’d just as soon forget. Smoke and ash filled the skies for the better part of a month, forcing some to evacuate their homes, only to be left in a state of worry for years to come with each passing rain storm. A state budget mess of epic proportions forced some hard decisions at City Hall and the school district. All the while, the city was put through a brutal election and all that comes with it — the incessant mailers, politicking and hard campaigning.

DOWNTOWN — Glendale and Burbank offices continued to empty through the third quarter of 2009, adding to the combined total of more than 2.3 million square feet of vacant real estate, for which demand has plummeted, experts said. Vacancy rates swelled in the area and across Los Angeles County, where more businesses moved out of offices in all but one major sub-market, ranging from the Wilshire Corridor to the South Bay, research from multiple real estate firms showed. While the county’s average office vacancy rate in the third quarter was 15.6%, figures climbed to 19.4% in Glendale and 17.7% in Burbank, according to the most recent data published this month by real estate firm Grubb & Ellis.

SOUTH GLENDALE ? Demand for career advice has skyrocketed at the Verdugo Jobs Center, more than doubling from last year?s stream of about 4,000 monthly out-of-work visitors, the Verdugo Workforce Investment Board reported Tuesday. The board oversees the center, which offers career training and counseling to job seekers, said Don Nakamoto, labor market analyst for the board. It now offers its free services to between 9,000 and 10,000 visitors monthly, he said. ?I think because of what?