Barstow workers struggle with unemployment

BARSTOW • Albertina Marquez has been looking for a job for three years. The 28-year-old Barstow mom has been unemployed since she was laid off from her job at Quizno’s Sub Sandwich after the restaurant closed its doors in 2009. Though she looks for a job six hours each week, she still has not found one. She doesn’t think she will. She is one of 1,600 able-bodied workers in Barstow looking for a job, according to recent employment data.

The unemployment rate in Barstow was 14.9 percent as of Dec. 2011, according to data released by the Employment Development Department. Though it’s slightly less than months past, Barstow’s unemployment rate sits far above the county, state and national rates. For the same month, the unemployment rate in San Bernardino County was 11.9 percent, slightly higher than the state rate of 11.1 percent. The national unemployment rate was 8.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Marquez does community service work at Desert Manna Ministries through CalWorks, a cash aid program. There she manages paperwork, keeps up the office, and performs other basic office duties. Though she applies for work often and looks online for employment listings, she has yet to find a job in Barstow.

“Nobody’s hiring at all,” Marquez said. “It’s been really difficult.”

Ken Eaves, who oversees the Workforce Development Center on State Street, said underemployment is also a large problem in Barstow as some will take jobs below their qualifications just to make ends meet.

“What we try to do is to give them the skills necessary to either get them employed or give them the skills to bring them back up to the level they once were,” Eaves said. “They’re entering a really tough work force environment.”

Desert Manna volunteer Ted Willis said he’s been looking for a job in Barstow since he moved here three months ago from San Bernardino. Willis, 35, said his main line of work is in communications installations, though he’s been applying for all kinds of jobs — at least one a day.

“It’s a struggle everyday,” Willis said. “I’ve got a family to provide for and it’s kind of hard to provide for my family if I don’t have a job.”

In the past year and a half Willis has been laid off from a job three times, he said. Though he said he has a good employment background, and his supervisor at Desert Manna said he’s a hard worker, his search is thus far fruitless.

“I can’t see why anybody wouldn’t hire him,” said Steven Agcaoili, Desert Manna coordinator.

Eaves believes if the workforce can be properly trained for jobs that are hiring, that could turn the economy around in Barstow as employers hire locally, instead of hiring out of state.

“You can’t have economic development without workforce development,” Eaves said.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES

Barstow
14.9 %
SB County
11.9 %
California
11.1 %
U.S.
8.5 %