Editor's note: This one in an occasional series of stories about how Sacramento area workers are reinventing their careers during a period of high unemployment.

Maybe you've been laid off, accepted a buyout or taken early retirement and now are thinking about your next step.

Whether it's a job-training program, a return to college or a venture into a small business or franchise, today's rugged economy has led many to reconsider their career path.

At the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency, more than 50,000 people visit its 12 Sacramento Works career centers each year seeking résumé assistance and career counseling, said Robin Purdy, SETA's deputy director of work force development.

Nearly 15,000 job seekers sought the centers' help in the past three months alone - a 9 percent increase from the same three-month period last year, Purdy said. Many are looking for ways to retrain.

"We are seeing more and more people interested in improving their skills and looking for occupational skills training" in burgeoning fields such as health care and careers tied to green technologies, Purdy said.

Experienced workers are also retooling, re-entering the campus and the workplace. The numbers of students 59 and older enrolled at California State University has steadily grown over the past five years.

In fall 2004 semester, 1,677 students 59 and older were enrolled at CSU campuses. By fall 2008, the number had climbed to 2,117 - 182 of those at Sacramento State - with the majority in graduate studies.

For some seniors, the situation is more dire. They've absorbed a late-career layoff or buyout or have watched their 401(k) retirement funds disappear. They've forestalled retirement or have been forced to return to the job market.

"We're seeing a lot of skilled people coming back to the work force," said Bob Rice, a project director for AARP Foundation's WorkSearch program in Sacramento, which helps mature workers re-enter the workplace. Officials estimate registration in the program is up 40 percent from the same time last year.

"Frustration is showing up with a lot of the people we work with," Rice said. "They're running out of money, they're losing their house. There's a lot of desperate people out there."

At Los Rios Community College District, enrollment this fall at the four-campus district has swelled by 5,000 students from fall 2008, and classrooms are stretched to the limit.

Though officials say the reasons for the spike vary widely, among the incoming students are job seekers and employees squeezing into classes to boost their skills or jump-start their chances on the open market.

"We do have job seekers returning to our colleges. They're coming to us because their out of work or they're afraid of losing their jobs," said Susie Williams, a district associate vice chancellor.

Some 70 El Dorado County residents signed on in June to a program for job seekers organized by Green Valley Community Church in Placerville. After the eight-week program ended recently, five came out of the program with jobs, said volunteer instructor Michael Dugan.

"We wish the numbers were higher," he said, but in today's economy, "we're delighted that anyone's getting jobs."

Another 100 job seekers are signed up for the current eight-week module.

In a Sacramento-area market where the jobless rate sits at 12 percent, more people are looking for ways to stay afloat or chart their own destiny.

Now is the time, AARP's Rice said.

"When you're laid off and that is a gap in your work life, it gives you a chance to figure out what you want to do."

Second Act stories:

Jason Harnum

Michael Dugan

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