Comcast, then Campbell Soup. Within days last week, Comcast said it's shutting down its Natomas call center and Campbell Soup announced plans to close its Franklin Boulevard plant in south Sacramento, leaving hundreds of area workers to wonder what their next step will be.

But there is help at Sacramento Works' One Stop Career Center locations across Sacramento County.

The centers have "everything the job seeker needs to find a job," said Patti Perez, who manages the One Stop Career Center at 7000 Franklin Blvd., in Sacramento, one of 11 One Stop sites in Sacramento County.

Find a listing online at www.seta.net.

Then, select "job seeker services."

That includes job and career coaching, and workshops on interviewing, résumé writing and how to hone a job seeker's "soft skills" of communication, flexibility, teamwork and dependability.

Free orientations are 9 a.m. Tuesdays at the center.

Scholarships are available to pay for retraining, and state Employment Development Department officials are on hand Tuesdays and Thursdays to answer questions.

With the closure announcements by Comcast and Campbell, employees should prepare their job search now, said Terri Carpenter of the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency.

"They should take interview and résumé workshops – they need to get familiar with online job postings," Carpenter said. "Decide where you want to go and start applying right away."

Yolo County job counselors also are ready to help any residents who work in Sacramento County at the Comcast call center or Campbell Soup, said Steve Roberts, an employment services specialist at the Yolo County Department of Employment and Social Services.

Yolo County has One Stop Centers at 25 N. Cottonwood St., in Woodland and 500-A Jefferson Blvd., West Sacramento.

Call the centers at (530) 661-2641 or (916) 375-6307 for information.

"If they are residents in Yolo County, we can help them also," Roberts said. "We're ready to do our share."

Vacancies are being filled

Local employers are hiring to fill vacancies but are more cautious about hiring to grow their workforces.

That's the word from staffing agency Pacific Staffing in its latest survey of quarterly employment trends.

"Employers are cautious when potential changes are ahead," said local market analyst Rick Reed, who prepares the survey for Pacific Staffing, citing looming elections and lingering anxiety about the economy.

Forty percent of local employers surveyed heading into the fourth quarter said they were hiring for growth, down slightly from 42 percent of employers in the third quarter.

"Employers are not growing their workforces at quite the same rate, but slightly more are opting to backfill existing positions within current staffing levels through year's end," Reed said in the report.

More than 60 percent of employers surveyed said they will be hiring in the fourth quarter, boosted in part by seasonal retail hiring.

Let us hear from you

Is your company hiring? Is your organization hosting a career fair?

Is your campus rolling out a job skills program?

Contact Job Front at dvsmith@sacbee.com.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

• Read more articles by Darrell Smith