Eileen Higgins, executive director of the Monmouth County Workforce Investment Board, discusses some of the services provided to thousands of unemployed people each year at the One-Stop Career Center in Eatontown. STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER ERIC SUCAR Lisa Maccone recalled feeling shocked and angry when she was laid off from her job in the mortgage industry last August. With a home loan of her own to pay off, she claimed unemployment insurance benefits and vowed to change her career path.
Maccone, a single mother from Manalapan, was not alone. Though New Jersey’s preliminary unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent last November, more than 302,000 workers remained jobless, according to the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development (LWD).
Although individuals who receive unemployment checks must actively search for work, they are not required to undergo job training, according to the LWD. But the state affords job seekers a plethora of free resources, including those provided by Monmouth County’s One-Stop Career Center in Eatontown, where Maccone sharpens her skills nearly every day.
Lisa Maccone of Manalapan has been working with the career center to obtain a grant to attend school. STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER ERIC SUCAR “Life sends you all these different obstacles, and we just have to jump over them. We have a choice: We can either curl up and die or we can get up, wipe ourselves off and keep going,” Maccone said. “I’m a survivor. I’m going to do it.”
Last year, the county facility helped thousands of people — from low-skilled laborers to doctors — with about $5.5 million in federal and state funding, said Eileen Higgins, executive director of the county’s Workforce Investment Board and director of the Division of Workforce Development. Statistics on the number of clients who found and retained jobs were not immediately available, but the organization meets or exceeds its goals every year, she said.
“We work with them until they connect or until they stop coming to us,” Higgins said.
The career center, along with 34 others throughout the state, offers one-on-one meetings with counselors, various training and evaluation programs, specialized workshops, support groups, job fairs and financial grants to individuals who are unemployed, underemployed or eager to improve, Higgins said.
Résumés and job-search methods have evolved with the rise of the digital world, she said. Career center employees often teach clients how to adapt to new trends and standards such as the use of social-media websites in the job hunt, Higgins said. The center also arranges groups in which job seekers are united in their quest for employment, she said. Peers work together and with career counselors in structured settings that help to boost morale for those who live in the fog of unemployment, Higgins added.
One morning last week, Maccone sat in front of a pile of papers that were tattooed with math problems. She said she had to improve her arithmetic for an upcoming test that will determine whether she receives a grant to attend school.
Staff members have helped Maccone hit the books, she said. That is critical because her unemployment insurance benefits are slated to expire in a couple of months, and the education grant would prolong the much-needed assistance, Maccone said.
“It’s a little humiliating at times, but you have to do what you have to do,” she said of the time she spends at the career center.
Longtime workers who do not know how to access social aid sometimes map out routes to food stamps, tax-return help and other social services through the career centers, Higgins said.
A job title is not as important as a skill set, Higgins said. While clients might first turn to the center with a particular type of position in mind, counselors and staff members focus on abilities and how they can translate to the job hunt and, eventually, the workplace, she said.
That became especially crucial after Fort Monmouth closed in 2011 and former employees flocked to the one-stop facility.
“We looked at their skills because those job titles were gone,” she said. “So we needed to help them see that the skills that they had in doing transportation, logistics and distribution for the fort were the same kind of skills that they could use in a public company.”
Jobs4Jersey.com, a state-run website, matches employers to candidates, based partly on their proven talents, LWD Deputy Commissioner Aaron Fichtner said. The forum boasts nearly 270,000 registered job seekers and 10,000 employer accounts, with 295,000 openings listed in and near New Jersey, according to the state.
Fichtner said the website is one of many offerings designed to help qualified individuals find the right gig, rather than undergo training.
“We provide a lot of services to people that are not job training, but are really helping people to navigate the labor market and make sure that they are looking for jobs,” he said.
Even so, a small number of people are left with little choice but to swap careers as some industries weaken and others gain momentum, Fichtner said.
Maccone, for example, now plans to carve out a spot in nutrition or holistic medicine. After more than 20 years in the mortgage business, the field grew too volatile and the work too unfulfilling, she said.
Both state and county workforce officials collaborate with businesses to understand their hiring needs, and that is to the benefit of the company and the unemployed, Fichtner said. The LWD also records and analyzes data on emerging and well-performing career clusters, he said.
“The labor market is changing, and it’s really critically important for us to make sure we understand where things are going and to figure out pockets of skills needed by employers,” he said.
State funding and partnerships with community colleges regularly breed programs that prepare residents for these secure professions, Fichtner said. The real-world approach spurs high job-placement rates, as illustrated by a recent, successful push to groom metal fabricators, he said.
In its drive to fight unemployment, the state does not align with private employment agencies. But businesses such as TeleSearch Staffing Solutions, which independently screens and trains individuals for temporary stints in third-party companies, play a role in the struggle.
Ann McWilliams, a TeleSearch regional manager who oversees branches in Freehold and Lakewood, said the firm’s clout with employers attracts job seekers who want a quick means to a paycheck. The opportunity — free to workers of all skill levels — frequently leads to stable employment, she said.
“The majority of our clients will bring on employees who we place permanently,” McWilliams said. “Even if they don’t expect it, an opening might come while they’re temping and a client might bring them onto their payroll.”
And the chance to reclaim that solid standing is key. Low-paying jobs fail to carry the lives, loans and children of displaced workers like Maccone, she said.
“Unfortunately, I can’t afford to take a job for $10 an hour. I need to find a career where I’m going to make enough money to keep my house,” she said.
With free time on her hands, Maccone said she will continue to beef up her skill set and send a copy of her résumé to any business with a mailing address. The lack of phone calls and interviews is discouraging, she said, adding that she believes her efforts will ultimately bring about a fresh start.