PENDLETON – The news is filled with stories of layoffs and bankruptcies, but how can people pick up the pieces and recover from a pink slip?

“We are the designated agency for people who find themselves unexpectedly unemployed,” said Debbie Fine, regional coordinator for Worksource Pendleton and the Region 12 Workforce Investment Board. It is a one-stop shop in the Oregon Employment Department that offers unemployed people a variety of options in a job search.

The center covers Umatilla and Morrow counties, and offers people help improving a resume, creating a cover letter, polishing interviewing techniques, improving job skills or just help finding a job or applying for unemployment.

“If nothing else it is a place to start and to explore the different options available to them,” Fine said.

The group coordinates with The Community Action Program East Central Oregon and Blue Mountain Community College to provide quick services and skill classes, she said. The center also offers counselors who can do a career analysis to help people look at what they might want to do and what job skills they have that are transferable to another career field.

“We help them get signed up for unemployment and if they are looking for employment in the area, help sign up to start doing job matches,” Fine said. “The assistance the agency gives is really up to the person. It can be as extensive or as brief as they want.”

The group also coordinates with Workforce, which is operated through CAPECO and works with BMCC and employers in the area to provide additional classroom training. Dawn Salsbery, director for Workforce, said the CAPECO group could help with almost any kind of training.

“If they feel the need for additional training as far as college, we will help,” Salsbery said. “For example, put them through (classes) to drive a truck.”

Right now nursing seems to be a popular program for people to get additional training in, she said.

“Really anything the person wants we can help with that,” she said. “We also have relationships with employers so a specialist will contact employers to do on-the-job training.”

It is not always easy for people to turn to the center, especially people in high-end positions, Fine said. But that doesn’t mean that Workforce Development can’t be helpful.

“If they need a jump-start or extra assistance it gives them some extra options,” she said. “For some of those people it is reaching that point that ‘Maybe I better see what they have to offer.'”

In the case of large layoffs, like those that recently happened with the Oregon State Police or Umatilla County Mental Health, Workforce Development also puts together packages to explain what options are available to them.

“Whenever we do outreaches we tailor it to employer wishes and help (the employees) completely through the process of understanding what their options are and signing them up for the services,” Fine said.

Salsbery said many people coming in to Workforce are angry about losing their job so one of their first actives is a group session about their options.

“It gets people in a group setting and to go through different actives that help them move through a lot of the anger,” she said.

Many of the people who are getting laid-off now haven’t been in the job market for a while so they don’t know where or how to start looking, she said. “Things change.”

Even though it looked like there were not jobs available in the area, people should contact the employment agency or her office, Salsbery said.

“There are more jobs than people realize,” she said. “It is just thinking about it and thinking what you want.”

Worksource will provide information on jobs from around the area.

“We put together the packet of information and pulled every state patrol and city patrol job, put it into a binder and called Washington State Patrol and Idaho State Patrol,” Fine said.

It’s easier to re-employ someone from a position at K-Mart or Emporium than a mental health worker who has more specialized job skills and training, she said. While the preference is to keep workers and jobs in Umatilla and Morrow counties, that’s not always possible. When there are no jobs in the area, Workforce Development can help with money to cover some relocation costs.All the services are free and open to walk-ins.

Help for jobless

Workforce, run through CAPECO which offers skill assessment, group sessions, skill improvement classes, job placement and relocation assistance has offices in Hermiston and Pendleton.

Locations: Pendleton, 721 SE Third, Suite D

Hermiston, 456 East Galdys

Hours: Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Orientation sessions (people must sign up ahead of time): 5:30 p.m. to 7 every Tuesday

Phone: 276-1926

Web site: www.capeco-works.org

Worksource Pendleton, run through the Oregon Department of Employment.

Location: 408 SE 7th

Phone 276-9050

Web site: http://www.workforce.state.or.us/wfprograms/dwu/dwu.htm