By Patric Hedlund

National pundits and ivory tower think tanks are finally admitting this week what most ordinary workers and small business people have known since last fall: the U.S. economy is in a recession. There may be some good news locally however.

Although the unemployment rate in Kern County lurched to 9.9 percent in October (the highest in decades), there are at least 30 warehouse jobs available right now in Lebec, with more to come in January.

Mary Lage of the Southeast Career Services Center is the program specialist who is collecting resumes for these positions and for those opening in January at a new warehouse in Tejon Industrial Complex.

Current jobs include Stock Control (requiring good math skills and computer knowledge), Quality Control (inspecting products, requiring continuous standing) and General Warehouse positions (strapping packages and hand stacking, with forklift operation skills preferred). These are “shift work” positions (5 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Sunday to Thursday or 3 to 11:30 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday). The pay rate is $8 to $8.50 an hour.

You can fax your resume to Lage at (661) 635-2768. The employer seeks applicants with six-months recent work history. The ability to pass a drug test and good command of English are required.

Lage can help guide job seekers with other types of skills also. She screens applicants for the employers.

Good resources for job seekers, where you can register and search for the kind of job you hope to obtain, include www.careerservicescenter.com and www.caljobs.ca.gov, Lage said.

This is part of the December 05, 2008 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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