The Citizen

Genevieve Burk was around when things were different. Burk, 64, worked after high school in a typewriter factory in Groton. At the time, the Auburn native said, jobs at manufacturing plants were easy to come by.

“Back then, you could go just about anywhere and get a job,” Burk said. “People who are from Auburn will tell you that if you didn't like one place, you could walk down the street and find another place. It was as simple as that.”

But when the Bombardier plant announced in 2006 that it was closing and Burk was going to lose her nine-year job as an inspector, the street was a lot more empty. Many of the manufacturing jobs once in the area had left, and Burk knew she had to go on a different path.

Two weeks ago, she graduated from Cayuga Community College with an associate's degree in business administration. While she is still looking for full-time employment, she is looking in different areas than before.

“I didn't have a degree, and I was going on 63,” Burk said. “You cannot

discriminate because of age, but I did not feel there was much of a chance of my getting a job without something going for me.”

Burk is one of the rising number of individuals in Cayuga County without employment. According to state Department of Labor statistics, the county's unemployment rate has been higher each month than the same month in 2007 since December. As of April, the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent - more than half a percentage point higher from April 2007.

Like Burk, many of the people who make up the area's unemployed come from the manufacturing sector, according to labor department economist Roger Evans.

While the county's overall job totals keep growing and are currently at a record high, the number of unemployed individuals also keeps going up, Evans said. Manufacturing has accounted for the highest number of jobs lost in the state over the last month, according to the labor department.

And also like Burk, many of these people are finding themselves at a crossroads. Either change the direction of their careers or move elsewhere.

That is not always as easily done as it is said.

“The unemployed individuals are largely coming from the manufacturing sector, and there is not always a good fit for these people in the local economy,” Evans said. “There are two reasons for their troubles. One is the lower demand for their skills and the other is the wage rates in manufacturing today.”

Evans said when a manufacturing firm closes down, many of the workers are re-introduced to the job market after working high seniority positions.

“They were earning much more money than they could command on day one of a new job,” he said.

Burk said she was lucky she enrolled full time in college. Because of the circumstances of her layoff, she was able to secure federal funds for school. Only a few people from the factory also took advantage of the program, she said.

“Bombardier actually did a lot for us,” she said. “They encouraged us, and they gave us that option for school. They were really good to us.”

But Evans said many people who are unemployed don't have an option to go back to school. A lot of them just can't afford the training, he said.

“It is a major commitment to retrain for another career,” Evans said. “Those who can and do certainly have the brightest prospects.”

Whether the destination is a new career or a similar field, the road to a new job for most of the county's unemployed population runs through the Cayuga Works Career Center, located at Cayuga Community College. The county's unemployment office is there, as are the state labor department's local office and many other labor-related agencies and organizations.

Ted Hurling, director of the center, said it serves a kind of one-stop shop for local job seekers. Those who collect unemployment insurance do it through the center. Cayuga Works also offers resources including a labor library, one-on-one job counseling and various workshops.

“We're trying to provide work force development services in a coordinated way,” said Hurling, who added that the career center serves between 3,000 and 4,000 people a year.

The flow of people coming through the employment center can depend on the time of year, Hurling said. Because of seasonal work, there are more people looking for jobs in the winter months than the spring and summer, he said. And when the unemployment numbers rise, so does the workload at Cayuga Works.

“We are going to have a lot more people here when the unemployment goes up,” Hurling said.

The center's library offers computers with Internet access and labor-related software. After registering with the center, visitors can search and apply for jobs online, or work on and mail resumes.

The free workshops touch on a variety of topics, from improving interview skills to learning how to apply online. Recently, a workshop titled “Repackaging Your Skills and Knowledge” tested attendees and taught them ways to use the employment experience they have to place themselves in a new field or career.

Being laid off can be traumatizing, Hurling said. Having to find a new career and apply in a market that has changed a lot in even ten years does not make it any easier.

“Some people who come in don't really know what they want, but we are trying to find the best possible jobs for people we can,” Hurling said.

Not all the people who go through the county career center get there from the manufacturing sector. Mike Bishop, 41, has been applying for more than a year to colleges and human service organizations.

The fact that state labor statistics show education and health services as the industries adding the most jobs to the economy has not made things easier.

His resume touts years of experience working as a program manager or teacher at area community colleges and other educational institutions. But it seems like he keeps ending up the second choice after every interview, Bishop said.

“You get used to it. You can't let it bother you,” said Bishop, who lives in Auburn. “You have to keep plugging away, and eventually you will find something.”

Bishop's last full-time work ended four years ago at Onondaga Community College, running a program helping underrepresented go to school for science and technology. Like all grant-funded programs, the money dried up, he said.

Since then, he has been able to do some part-time work and odd jobs. Bishop also receives a small amount of disability pay for a medical condition.

“It is safe to say life got in the way,” Bishop said.

Like Burk, the tough market is convincing Bishop that he needs to go another direction, career-wise. He is finishing up a master's degree in education, and he just started taking classes in a paralegal program at Syracuse University.

Bishop has also taken some workshops through the Cayuga Works Center to help guide him to the right new profession. One test he took told him he should be a priest, Bishop said.

It made sense, he added, because people always tell him he should be a counselor of social worker.

“I just said it's time. You need to go in a different direction,” Bishop said. “You have given this every opportunity in the last year and a half, and it is not working out.

“Quite frankly, you have to do something else,” he continued. “Get a different skill set.”

But until he finds his career, Bishop spends about three days a week at the work center, searching on web sites for educational jobs and tweaking his resume.

He treats it like a job, he said.

Bishop said he expects to find something by the end of the year.

“I better,” he said. “I just need to have a job.”

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net.