Recession's grip sending Nevadans back to school

Edward Gant, 55, spent 15 years working as a grounds-keeper until losing his job in 2007.

Today, he's going back to school, studying criminal justice at Western Nevada College - a move he said is necessary if he wants to find work in the future.

"There's nothing out there and everybody is getting laid off," he said, adding he had some college education, but never finished. "It's a new start on life."

Like Gant, tens of thousands of Nevadans have been searching for work for months now - some for years - ever since the construction and tourism industries took a nosedive at the start of the recession.

And on Friday, Nevada officially took the unwelcome distinction of having the highest unemployment rate in the nation on Friday, surpassing Michigan.

"This is unusually long," said Elliott Parker, an economics professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. "It is a very different type of recession, especially for us. In its causes and characteristics, it is much more like a depression than any recession we have experienced since (the Great Depression)."

Don Costa, the branch manager for Join Inc., a job training firm at 1925 N. Carson St., said some industries are hiring, including trucking and clerical work.

"Construction is down the tubes," Costa said. "That said, the trucking industry is looking for people if they will go over the road on long hauls."

He said some manufacturers are expanding in Carson City, too, including local vitamin and beef jerky makers.

More importantly, retraining has become more important for out-of-work Nevadans, Costa said. Since last year, the number of people coming to Join for help on their GED - the equivalent of a high school diploma - has doubled.

In fact, more and more Nevadans are pursing their GED, said Mary Katherine Moen, the state's GED administrator.

In 2007, 5,703 people attempted to obtain their GED. By 2009, that number grew to 7,019.

"It's more critical than ever before," Costa said. "We've been out in the community looking at employers, and they've got signs in their lobby that say if you don't have a high school diploma or GED, don't bother to apply."

When Janet Locurto, a case manager at Join, started her job there four years ago, clients seeking a GED amounted to only a couple a year. Today, she sees five clients each week who are working on their GED.

"If they don't have a GED, they can't apply for a job," Locurto said. "It's a way for employers to weed out that segment of the population because they get so many applications for a job."

While taking a smoke break outside the Nevada JobConnect office in Carson City on Friday, Paul Buelow, 41, gave a mocking cheer after hearing the Silver State now has the highest unemployment rate in the nation.

"We're No. 1," he said.

Buelow, a welder by trade, has been searching for work for more than a year after losing his job at a local steel maker after three years of employment there.

"It's tiring," said Buelow, who's searching outside of Nevada for work. "That's pretty much what you have to do, get out of the worst state to work."

He snuffed out his half-smoked cigarette on the bottom of his shoe, slipped it in his pocket and went back inside the JobConnect office to continue his search.