Mario Coccia discovered he was about to lose his job at Viking Worthington Steel when a coworker spotted their factory's equipment for sale on the Internet. A few weeks later, Coccia, and 74 other employees at the Medina plant joined the rising ranks of Ohio's unemployed.
Mario Coccia: When you first hear you're gonna shut down, alright, I mean you're shocked, 'cause the guys over there, most of those guys had 20 years in.
Coccia himself had 29 years at Viking Worthington. Life since has been difficult. Between June 2008, when he got laid off, and last December, Coccia applied for about three jobs a week. That's 84 job applications…and most never even drew a response. So Coccia decided to update and expand his manufacturing job skills as several thousand other Ohioans have done recently.
Coccia took a course in automated machinery, a skill known as C-N-C. He finished classes at Cleveland Industrial Training Center in March, but still hasn't found a job. Coccia sits at his kitchen table, leafing through a two-inch thick pile of résumé's, cover letters, applications, and correspondences.
Twenty-six more job applications since he graduated from retraining and Coccia has nothing to show for it.
Mario Coccia: This is meant to put the people back to work but where are the jobs?
Taxpayers paid the school for Coccia's retraining to the tune of $4,100. This year alone, Ohio has received more than $25 million dollars in federal trade adjustment assistance. That's a program targeted specifically to help those who lost their jobs because of foreign trade. Washington is pouring another $172 million into Ohio in stimulus money earmarked for job retraining.
Mario Coccia: Now, I mean, the whole retraining process, I think, is good, so on and so forth. But if the jobs are not there, it makes you wonder like why, why am I doin' it? And I'll tell you one thing that's discouraging is the companies that don't recognize this training.
Job counselors say the problem is that employers - particularly in manufacturing - can afford to be picky. Employers are demanding years of experience in a very specific skill set.
Tina Hutchinson knows that well. The placement officer lost her position earlier this year because jobs in the automated manufacturing sector where she worked completely dried up. She just landed another job, though as a temp, at The Reserves Network, a Brunswick based staffing agency.
Tina Hutchinson: The folks that are coming out of school that are brand new out of school with not years of work under their belt, they have a hard time finding work. Production supervisors look for people that have more work under their belts.
That's a statement Mario Coccia has heard on his job hunt one too many times.
Mario Coccia: One fella told me he was looking for people with real experience. Quote - unquote, "real." I got so ticked off I says, 'That's it, I'm going camping.' I went camping for three days.
One of the largest training and placement centers for manufacturing jobs in northeast Ohio is The Kaplan Career Institute in Brooklyn. Kaplan's Regina Hodgson says the growing number of laid off workers are filling up their classes, but job placement opportunities have shrunk.
Regina Hodgson: This time last year we were much busier getting job orders for CNC students, but it's starting to pick back up.
Perhaps, but Coccia hasn't seen any such improvements. His latest tactic is to try private placement agencies. No payoff there, either.
Mario Coccia: I'm showing you in the first letter they contacted me, alright, and said 'Hey we can place you.' I've mailed them my certification, my grade sheet, and then when a job comes up, they're not placing me.
Coccia says he's getting tired of talking about all the rejections and no responses - he'd like to see some of his hard work pay off already. But with three kids to take care of and his unemployment benefits almost exhausted, his job hunt is still on in earnest.