Résumés seem to disappear into the void. An unemployed worker might send out 10 or 20 or 30 with no response. The rare job interview too often ends in apology: We'd love to have you, but …
And so, in growing numbers, the region's unemployed construction workers, mortgage brokers and real estate agents are booting up laptops, loading up backpacks and heading to school in search of new careers.
On Friday, the state's Employment Development Department released the region's grimmest figures in more than a decade: Unemployment in the Sacramento region was at 6.4 percent in January, up half a percentage point from the month before.
For laid-off workers who are living, breathing proof of this new statistical reality, landing a job in a stable industry has become of paramount importance. Increasingly, they are turning to vocational colleges for help.
These days, health care and information technology are particularly popular among those training for new careers.
Michelle Schultz, a 37-year-old Rio Linda resident who worked as an escrow officer for 13 years before losing her job in October, said the string of polite rejections "was like a broken record."
She knew she needed to find a new line of work. But she'd been out of school for some 19 years and "relearning scared the bejeebers out of me," she said.
She considered the cost of her mortgage and her sons' private schooling, swallowed her fears and enrolled at MTI College to learn how to do medical office work.
These days, many vocational schools are starting to report increases in interest and enrollment. MTI, a cluster of pink and green domed buildings off Madison Avenue and Auburn Boulevard, has seen a 36 percent increase in inquiries since last summer.
TechSkills, across from the Arden Fair mall, has seen a similar-size jump in interest in the past year. To keep up with demand, it has added three staff positions.
Robert Johnson, executive director of the California Association of Private Postsecondary Schools, said the numbers started climbing around Christmas in schools across the state.
Vocational colleges typically flourish when the economy tanks. During the dot-com bust in the early 2000s, Western Career College saw a 50 percent jump in enrollment in two years, much of it from laid-off workers looking for jobs in health care.
"That was a kind of a crazy gold rush phenomenon," said Jeff Akens, the college's president. He said numbers haven't started increasing this time around – but he expects them to.
Enrollment at area community colleges has increased as well in the past year.
Schools are working to accommodate an influx of older and often savvier students.
"They're a lot wiser as far as what their needs are," said Scott King, director of the TechSkills Sacramento campus.
At the same time, some of those students have been out of school for decades and are having to relearn things that come naturally to counterparts in their early 20s. A test can seem particularly terrifying if you haven't taken one since the 1970s. And homework?
"As an older woman coming into a whole other career, it's very daunting," said Kathleen Thornsberry, a 53-year-old MTI student, who'd assembled electronics for 16 years before her job was outsourced last January. She decided to pursue a lifelong dream and signed up to train as a medical assistant.
Competing with people half her age intimidated her – until she recognized two former colleagues on the first day of class.
As they head back to school, the new breed of vocational student is having to consider a few variables that are different from previous periods of economic downturns.
For one: The state agency responsible for overseeing career colleges evaporated last summer. Many colleges, including Western, TechSkills and MTI, are accredited by separate, regional commissions. But others will now be held accountable only by voluntary agreements.
"Students now, because there is no regulation, are at additional risk," said Russ Heimerich, a spokesman for the state Department of Consumer Affairs. " Most schools are doing their due diligence."
Johnson, of the state postsecondary schools association, acknowledges the possibility that some unaccredited schools could let standards slip. Until new legislation is passed to bring back state oversight, he said, students should be extra careful when making their choices.
The other new variable is the shakiness of the lending industry, which is making it more difficult for students to secure educational loans.
Schools are trying to help students come up with new methods of financing their education, which can run from less than $5,000 for training in medical office work to more than $50,000 for training as a dental hygienist.
For some, like Jennifer Sandoval, 26, school is an expensive pill to swallow in unstable times. Sandoval, a mother of two, until September earned her wages encouraging people to refinance home loans through Beneficial, a financial services company. She is now studying at Western Career College to be a medical assistant, and then hopefully a nurse.
"It's just like crunching pennies," she said.
For those with more of a financial cushion, it's sometimes easier to find the silver lining.
"It has a liberating effect," said Bill Wheelock, 59. Last year, he got his pink slip from Unisys, an information technology company, the same day he received his 10-year appreciation plaque.
He's now updating his Microsoft systems engineering certification through TechSkills and eventually hopes to start his own business using technology to reduce energy consumption.
He likes to proselytize the positive:
"Yes it is the end of the world," he said. "The question is: What do you do next?"
Call The Bee's Jocelyn Wiener, (916) 321-1967.
