THE JOBS ARE OUT THERE MEDICAL CARE, REAL ESTATE FINANCING STILL NEED PEOPLE; PUBLIC AGENCIES HIRING DESPITE FREEZES.

Byline: Barbara Correa Staff Writer

Just because U.S. unemployment hit a nine-year high doesn't mean there aren't jobs out there. Career counselors, headhunters and chief executives across Southern California say the trick is knowing where to look.

Despite the budget woes that have hit government spending hard, many agencies still are filling jobs - even when there's a hiring freeze in place.

In its June listings, Los Angeles County advertises for ambulance drivers, an Arboretum gardener and a helicopter mechanic with a salary of $4,755 a month.

The city of Los Angeles - a city with a hiring freeze in place - still wants librarians, park rangers, systems analysts and a chief airport engineer, a job that pays between $89,800 and $130,900 yearly, according to the city's June 27 list of job postings.

Total state government employment is down, but with a work force of 2.4 million, the 1 percent rate of attrition alone creates a steady flow of openings, said Ken Mandler, publisher of Capitol Weekly, a trade publication that tracks state hiring and campaign contributions.

``We get jobs every day by fax and mail from L.A. County, from the schools, colleges, a variety of positions,'' said Vicki Hodges, resource room director at Women at Work, a nonprofit career center in Pasadena.

While competition is tight for the best jobs, Hodges said she's surprised that in this challenging employment market, traffic at the center is down a bit. Part of that is seasonal, but it also reflects discouragement among job seekers.

``A lot of people are in a slump,'' she said.

But the art of job hunting is looking on the bright side.

While the government, education and manufacturing sectors have shed jobs lately, business services, construction and hospitality showed gains, the California Employment Development Department reported in its latest report on employment trends, released July 11.

Some sectors, namely health care services and real estate financial services, are on fire.

With record low interest rates driving lending activity for home purchasing and refinancing, mortgage companies are starved for talent at all levels.

``Everybody's scrambling for people,'' said S.A. Ibrahim, director of the California Mortgage Bankers Association and president of GreenPoint Mortgage. ``We have 400-plus open positions to fill.''

And those openings aren't just for mortgage underwriters.

``We need people with good communications skills who can deal with customers,'' said Ibrahim. ``Right now, the biggest problem in the industry is to answer customers' calls.''

Recently he hired sales support people from other industries - one hire previously sold restaurant machine equipment - who might not be real estate experts but are quick studies and can handle people.

Other opportunities involve performing basic functions like opening loan applications and doing data entry.

Likewise, job openings in the medical services sector aren't restricted to nurses. (With California facing a shortage of tens of thousands of registered nurses in the next decade, the profession wins the prize for most wanted.)

Gloria Lazalde, program manager for the Pacoima Workforce Development Initiative, said Wellpoint and Kaiser Permanente are looking for entry-level employees, and caregiver and housekeeping positions are open at convalescent hospitals like Beverly Manor in Van Nuys.

Growing high-tech companies scattered throughout the region offer some of the best jobs available right now.

Dave Daniels, a medical technologies recruiter in Los Angeles, said he's seeing some improvement in demand for research staff and managers in the past six months.

``People can only hold back so long,'' Daniels said. ``Businesses have to grow and generate new sales. They need to hire salespeople and that's what's happening.''

Long Beach-based Apriso Corp., which makes supply network management software, needs sales and marketing, product management and software development professionals.

The company has expanded from 70 employees in 1999 to 170 now, with about 80 of those positions at the Long Beach headquarters, said chief executive Adam Bartkowski.

``I've had four interviews this week,'' said Jeffrey DeVoe, human resources director at ExexDirect, a business-to-business direct-marketing firm in Woodland Hills.

The company, launched in 2001, pairs mainly biotech and high-tech companies - such as scientific literature publisher Elsevier - with prospective corporate clients. It doesn't market to consumers, so won't be affected by new federal telemarketing restrictions. ExexDirect plans to keep hiring several business development representatives per month.

Call centers at Time Warner, Medtronic Minimed and Countrywide Financial are beefing up staffing to meet an expanding need for customer service.

Michael Tompkins, call center manager at ACI Billing Services, a local and long-distance phone-billing operation in Northridge, said he hired several staffers late last month and is counting on more expansion amid increasing competition among telecom providers.

``We handle 500 different carriers,'' he said. ``It's a very lucrative time for telecommunications. People are more cognizant about their rates.''

Prospects for employment in the Inland Empire remain relatively strong, said John Husing, an economist in Highland. Toy-maker Mattel is the latest company to open a distribution warehouse on the site of the former Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino and will hire several hundred workers when it opens next year.

Such distribution facilities have created well over 6,000 jobs in the past 13 months, a period that saw new distribution warehouses springing up to serve Unilever, Target, Wal-Mart, Ford Motor Co., small-appliance distributor Salton, Converse, Tyco and Kohl's, said Husing.

``We know we're adding logistics jobs,'' said Husing, predicting that the trend will continue with growth in international trade.

Construction, dominated by home building, is still employing people in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. But expected state budget cuts will likely endanger jobs related to infrastructure, such as Caltrans freeway projects, said John Hakel, executive director of the Monterey Park chapter of Associated General Contractors of America, a construction industry trade group.

``With the budget ... , the employment scene in Southern California is mixed. Folks who have contracts with state, city and local agencies are starting already to slow down or stop,'' he said.

Still, many public works projects already in the pipeline should create some opportunities for construction workers and civil engineers, said Hakel.

Also, more than $5 billion in local bond measures passed last fall locked in the construction of new schools through Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties, ensuring steady demand for construction talent for the next several years.

Don't have any of the above skills?

Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., reports available driver jobs with CONNEX-TCT, a bus operator and Los Angeles Department of Transportation contractor based in Commerce. If not, ``retail always seems to be hiring,'' he said.

``For the most part, the job market is pretty flat right now,'' said Darin Meadows, Southern California area manager for Manpower Inc., the world's second-largest temporary employment firm. But, he adds, ``we think the worst is over.''

Barbara Correa, [phone]

barbara.correa(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) Charmaine Richards of Monrovia, seated, and Patricia Aaron of Pasadena look over job postings at the Women at Work career center in Pasadena.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

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WHERE ARE THE JOBS

SOURCE: Employment Development Department

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