Last week about 60 men and women crowded into a classroom on Kent State University's Warren campus at about the same time when they used to report to work. They were all waiting to find out how they might get in on an offer of a free semester of college.
The offer is specifically for layoff refugees…some of whom are still in shock about the recent reversal their careers have taken.
Stephanie Hall: "We got laid off Friday, got a note Saturday, our benefits were cancelled…just…surprise! "
Sandy Andrews: "We had a big meeting - a plant meeting. We're thinking, OK, profits are up, everything's going good…We sold the company yesterday."
Sue Marshall Jones: "I have been laid off before, then I worked for a video chain that got bought out, which was a different kind of layoff. Then I free-lanced, and there's ups and downs to that, too, and so I've seen the whole gamut."
Stephanie Hall, Sandy Andrews and Sue Marshall-Jones are all searching for some competitive edge that will make the NEXT job more secure than the last.
That's not easily done in Ohio. Many counties here are seeing unemployment rates two to three points above the national average. So they have lots of competition.
The Trumbull County campus is virtually in the shadow of the Lordstown General Motors plant where 2,000 were laid off last month. And that downsizing is causing a ripple effect of job losses businesses in the area.
Thomas: "It's almost on a daily basis, 50-60-100 people are losing their jobs."
That's KSU Trumbull Dean Wanda Thomas, she hopes the pilot program is picked up by other state universities.
Students who qualify receive one semester at KSU tuition free. Problem is, it is only one semester, and it's available only to a tiny fraction of Ohio 430-thousand unemployed.
John Kost: "They're going to look at your previous year W-2s, and I know what's gonna happen. They're going to look at the money you made for the previous year. You made too much money, you're not going to get any assistance."
Prospective student John Kost was supervising 30 people at a cabinet factory just last month. That salary's gone now, but he could be disqualified for grants to continue his education based on a job he no longer has.
Eleven years ago, a federal program called the Workforce Investment Act was created to help people like John, who lost jobs through no fault of their own. It helps identify where the jobs are and may pay for training when needed.
The federal program requires counties to open One-stop agencies where job seekers can apply for unemployment compensation, receive counseling, testing and qualify for paid job training.
Ralph Sinistro manages the Summit County's One-stop center that houses a daycare center, resource library, adult literary and interviewing and resume writing classes. He says One stop centers do a very good job of helping the unemployed and underemployed find jobs and get career counselling. But when it comes to providing training for new job skills, Sinistro admits the one stop centers can fall way short.
Sinistro: "We run out of funds by mid year. And that's not just Summit County, that's nationally. You just never get enough to train all the people who need training. The last 10 years we've been cut time and time again."
Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Workforce Development Director Larry Benders says the way the law is written keeps One-stops from adapting quickly to the massive number of newly unemployed.
Benders: "The Feds and the state say, 'Here's your pot of money. This year it's you can spend 6 million dollars against youth, 6.6 million against dislocated workers, and another 6 million against adults. It would be great to have local flexibility."
Benders says official unemployment numbers grossly underestimate the true number of people out of work who want jobs.
Benders: "They've given up. They may have said. 'I have no options,' Those folks are EV-RY Where."
There's been some temporary relief. Governor Ted Strickland has approved waivers to spend more state money on dislocated workers, but that pot is in jeopardy in the coming two-year budget. And U.S. Senator convinced the Department of Labor to make emergency training dollars available to displaced workers in southern Ohio's DHL plant and the GM facility near Dayton.
But those measures are just temporary fixes, says Rick McHugh of the non-profit policy group, the National Employment Law Project. The Workforce Investment Program needs at least three times as much money to work properly. Otherwise, a lot of toddays unemployed will remain jobless.
McHugh: "If we would get them some income, get them some way to pay their tuition, people could actually get an associates degree or a bachelor's degree, then they would have at least a shot of getting a decent job at the end of that process.
Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3