CHASING PAYCHECKS DESPITE MINIMAL JOBLESSNESS, A FEW GOOD EMPLOYERS WANTED.

Byline: JULIA M. SCOTT

Staff Writer

NORTH HOLLYWOOD -- They filled out job applications with freebie pens and chatted up recruiters while eyeing baskets of Tootsie Rolls. Some were dressed to the nines in tailored suits, while others wore T-shirts. All of them wanted jobs.

At a job fair Thursday at the Beverly Garland's Holiday Inn, hundreds of job seekers turned out despite rock-bottom unemployment. Employers ranged from Radio Iran to In-N-Out Burger and Kaiser Permanente.

Would-be mail carriers and clerks mobbed the U.S. Postal Service table, where Tyrone Washington was handing out four-page applications and flashlights that double as screwdrivers.

High attrition has left him in constant hiring mode.

"All the baby boomers are retiring," Washington said. "The mail must go on."

Janet Delgado hopes to get a post office job. She is returning to the work force after taking a year off for maternity leave and to raise her 5-month-old son. For Delgado, the post office's appeal is simple.

"They pay your holidays, and you get Sundays off," she said.

After Eugene Deutsch was laid off from his warehouse job in March, he decided to consider new lines of work, including hotel janitor, retail sales clerk and grocery store clerk. He grabbed fliers from FedEx, Lowe's and the Marriott Hotel, but without prior experience nobody was biting.

"They don't want to give you that first chance to get in and learn," Deutsch said.

Then a recruiter for Vons looked over his resume and asked him to fill out an application online. After that, an interview would be scheduled, said recruiter Beth McLaughlin.

McLaughlin and two colleagues were hiring for a wide range of positions, from entry level baggers to experienced managers and accountants. "We get a lot of matches" with so many openings, McLaughlin said.

But finding good workers with unemployment at 4.7 percent in Los Angeles County can be difficult, and it may not get any easier.

According to an economic forecast released in February by Jack Kyser, vice president and chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., growth downtown will make waves through the region.

To find good workers in such a tight market, recruiter Autrina James said the Institute for Applied Behavior Analysis offers top-notch benefits to sweeten wages, which start at $10 or $11 an hour.

She is hiring people who can teach cooking, housekeeping and coping skills to the developmentally disabled. James has 10 positions in the Valley and dozens more across the region.

"The benefits are more of the attraction," James said.

The job fair was sponsored by the California Employment Development Department and the San Fernando Valley WorkForce Collaborative.

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Vons representatives speak to job seekers Thursday during the Reaching for the Stars Job Fair at Beverly Garland's Holiday Inn in North Hollywood. From left are Monica Alex, Ronald King and Beth McLaughlin.

(2 -- color) At a job fair Thursday in North Hollywood, Lowe's recruiter Oran LeGrange, left, talks with job seeker Mahnaz Ghaem of Sherman Oaks.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

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