Anna Marie Cypert is a construction worker, and she's had no trouble staying employed during this downturn, thank you. She's working at the UC Davis Medical Center construction site in Sacramento, where a new emergency room and surgery center are taking shape.

"Despite what they're saying about the economy and our industry, it still looks pretty bright," said Cypert, 42, who makes $29 an hour as an apprentice electrician through a training program co-sponsored by labor and management. "Nothing is recession-proof, (but) there's still a whole lot of optimism out there."

The Labor Day holiday finds pockets of job growth throughout Sacramento even with unemployment at 7.3 percent, its highest rate in more than 12 years. Nurses and other health workers are in high demand. One engineering firm says it's been trying to fill a couple of specialized vacancies in its Sacramento office for a year. Some public schools are hiring, too, in suburban districts where the population keeps rising. New industries such as green technology are sprouting.

Even in construction, where about 8,900 Sacramento-area jobs have disappeared in two years, there's work available. Home building has mostly vanished, but nonresidential construction – offices, hospitals, schools, etc. – has held up fairly well.

"They're always building," said Joseph Bonacorso, 31, an apprentice electrician from Orangevale who was working last week on the remodel of an office building in Rocklin. "Everybody wants something built."

Growth sectors tied to economy

But as the economic downturn worsens, some of these bright patches could darken. Some experts say the slowdown in housing construction is starting to seep into nonresidential construction. Sacramento's biggest growth sector over the past year – state government, which added 1,300 jobs – is petering out amid a lengthy budget stalemate in the Legislature and a $15 billion deficit.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has laid off 10,300 temporary and part-time employees, the impact of which has yet to show up in the unemployment figures. It's not known how many of those layoffs were in the Sacramento area.

"It's getting sort of harder to find the (sectors) that are growing," said Howard Roth, chief economist at the state Department of Finance.

It doesn't help that Sacramento's job market appears to be worsening more quickly than most others. The four-county region lost 1 percent of its jobs in the 12 months ending July 31. The state lost 0.5 percent of its jobs.

Yet some segments of the economy appear healthier than ever. Nursing and other health-care occupations added 1,200 jobs in greater Sacramento over the past year, the second most of any category. That's a 1.4 percent growth rate.

"You don't see hospitals closing, you don't see nursing homes closing. You absolutely need more nurses – it's a wonderful profession to be in because you can go anywhere in the country and get a job," said Jetta Consono, a recently hired nurse from Rancho Cordova.

Consono, 61, is a clinical supervisor at RX Staffing & Home Care, a Sacramento home-health care company. The company's hiring has risen by about 20 percent this year, said administrator Kern Erman.

Reasons for growth include demand from aging baby boomers and financial pressures that are prompting hospitals to release patients more quickly, he said.

Yet even in health care, economic pressures exist. Erman said demand has fallen for home-care aides as cash-strapped families are paying for fewer visits and shorter hours.

"The economy has affected people spending money on home care," he said. "People are cutting back."

Ironically, nurses are paid more by RX – upward of $35 an hour – but their visits are generally covered by insurance or government dollars, he said. Home-care aides are paid up to $13 an hour, but the visits are usually paid out of pocket by the patients' families.

Upswing in green sector, schools

Meanwhile, Sacramento civic leaders have succeeded in attracting about 100 companies devoted to alternative energy or other green technologies, according to the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance.

Call The Bee's Dale Kasler, (916) 321-1066.