welcome to "beyond the headlines", i'm cheryl jennings. economists marked in june that the recession had ended but many are still struggling to find a job. california comes close to be the highest of unemployment across the country.

our show today is going to find out why our jobless rates are so high and organizations that hem you to find a job. but first, nannette miranda filed this report in june about the unemployment rate dropping 11.7% from 12.4%. >> the jobs is a mixed bag. good news, unemployment rate fell again to 11.7%. that is a drop almost a full percentage point since 2011 begin. it was higher in april. a much more positive picture an year ago when the jobless rates was at a near high of 12.5%. but for aircraft mechanic the bag nude. an employer shed 29,000 jobs in may, he was among those that got a pink slip but because of his

unique skills. >> it's not too bad for me but a guy coming out of prison or people getting laid off from $8 janitorial job, where are you going to find another job? >> what we're experiencing right now. >> a drop in unemployment along with the job loss happens for one reason, people quit looking. >> they don't think they can find a job so they drop out. in order to be unemployed you have to be actively looking for work. >> it continues to drag on the economy and public sector deals with shrinking budgets. >> there is one bright spot. the information sector, not only did it add jobs but had 7% job growth in the last year, biggest overall jump. that doesn't help steven frazier that may of to expand his job search to stay in the airline industry. >> you might have to go out of

state or out of town or might have to go to texas. >> those states have single digits unemployment. >> with me in the studio is economist jed kolko with the public policy institute of california. i'm looking at those numbers, the recession was over but it doesn't feel like it. >> technically searches did endt means the economy started growing again. the economy starts growing people don't hire right away. businesses may increase their output but they'll use workers and machinery they already have. the hiring happens when they are sure there will be enough growth in the economy to warrant hiring new workers. so unemployment will continue to

rise. >> that is not encouraging. >> so it has weakened until the end of last year and it has fallen since then. we're at the unemployment employment is growing faster than in the labor force that is when the unemployment rate finally falls. >> this recession and compare to what you see it historically this? >> has been much worse and the recovery much slower than recent recessions in california. when we think about the previous downturns like the dot com burst those were more about a specific region of california. this was widespread, it was national and really affected almost all regions and almost all industries and the recovery is much slower because of that. >> in california, did we start

this. >> the housing market really was the main trigger for much of this recession. in california housing prices have fallen by almost half, more than almost every place else in the country. so we have a slow down in housing, working in the construction industry that recovery the recovery depends t on what happens with the housing market and prices are still falling slightly though not as fast at the height of the recession. >> about you seeing a change in the near future or is this long term? >> to right now, the housing prices are getting close to stabilizing. it really varies in some regions like the bay area is better than other parts of the state. like in inland, we saw prices fall much more. and unemployment there is places where employment is growing

other type of service industries that are helping to lift up in this recovery. >> and all the things that are helping us and other states have single digit unemployment burr ours is in double-digits. >> one of the most important factors to explain why it's california than elsewhere, different states have different industries. california was very heavily weighted toward housing and it was much worse here so like in california, florida and nevada and some states in the midwest some of the states that have done the best have been more reliant on natural resource industries, that is one of the reasons we're seeing faster growth or slower decline in some other states. >> so the final 30 seconds or so where do you see us in materials of recovery in one to two years from now? >> employment has been growing

and unemployment rated will take years and in the it gets back to the normal lefltsd levels around 6%. >> thanks for your expertise. >> we do have to take a quick break. companies in california and the bay area are hiring. take a look at these upcoming jobs brought on to you by abc7 and job journal. [ male announcer ] using frontline plus

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welcome back to beyond the hid lines, we've been talking about the recession and unemployment. joining me in the studio right now, from the united way of bay area, maria stokes and matt poland the director of something called match bridge, we're going to talk about that in a moment. maria, i want to start with you. the program that i love, tell us about it. >> it's a financial education center, one stop place if you are struggling to make ends meet or looking for work you can connect with a coach that is going to help you look at your entire financial situation and help you look at your job situation and get you on track to find a new job, go back to school. get your resume in order. >> how does it differ becoming a job coach? >> it's not entirely different

but our coaches commit to working with people as long as going to take and when you are working with a coach you are looking at full picture. we're going to look at the current job market and your skills. what is going to help you out. what kind of things you need to improve your skills. you needing to a job training program. at the same time you might be having trouble with your credit. we can look at those things, too. they are looking at their whole situation, job being a very important part of it and your budget, you lost your job and you don't have enough income. what kind of adjustments do you have to make to help your family along. >> it's so comprehensive. >> matt tell me about match bridge. >> match bridge has been around for a few years. we work with young people, ages 16-24 who live or go to school in san francisco.

we help them connect with employment opportunities, like ross and ups quite a bit. so people that are ready for a job, we connect them with their first interview. >> have you noticed a lot more kids looking for work this summer? >> yesterday we had a screening days and had about 50 young people and month before it was closer to 60. we knew a lot of people but more than we expected. >> you have the jobs for it? >> we have employers that do a lot of recruitings throughout the year and retail. >> it's a free service? >> its free service, yes, and sponsored by the united way and generous corporate partners. >> one think i have to get to the 211 service you provide. people out of work or on the edge. >> yes, 211 is community

information line, you will reach a live person by dialing those three digits, 24 hours a day. if you are looking for some job programs and forgot the website address, you call 211 and you get help immediately. also if you do out of work and struggling to feed your family, struggling with transportation, 211 can show you programs that can assist. so the easy to remember phone number. >> very quickly why is it so hard for people to find work? >> i think because a lot of people don't have to think about what it takes to find work. they think applying for jobs and interviews but they don't realize it goes into networking component and how important it is, after you put an application to follow up with the employer and attend networking events, the job forum from 6:30 to 8:30

is great one to network with people. we try to encourage them at match bridge. that is something you need to do in your job search but your entire career. >> great advice. matt, thank you so much. >> all right. we will put the 211 number up but it's easy to remember. here is job fairs coming up in san jose and south san francisco. we'll be right back.qqqqqq

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welcome back. i'm cheryl jennings, we're talking about unemployment and programs to help you find a job. here is another sign that the bay area economy is improving. and auto dealership was looking to hire three dozen positions, they are offering 39 job openings at june job fair. that is not isolated blip on the radar. they say san jose has seen the best job growth rated of the ten largest cities. >> the economy is definitely getting better. our dealer groups are selling well over thousand cars a month. >> and they are looking for people in a wide variety of fields. they need four consultants and

shuttle drivers and graphic designers and internet technology is big part of the car business right now. joining me in the studio from a program called nova, bob withers who is a career advisor and mary ruddell was with the program and now has a job. >> thank you. >> bob, i wanted to start with you, both of you came from sunnyvale? >> yes. >> tell me about your program, the nova program? >> it's part of the work force investment act and northern california chapterer and it's pro match to enhance their skills and marketing themselves and networking. we hope they can find a job fit. >> it is a free service. >> how does it work. do they find you on line or come in the door?

>> a lot of sit words of mouth. its development product development we join up between edd and nova. >> and you are one of lucky recipients. tell me what happened to you. >> i was unemployed and i signed up for career counseling and was able to get into pro match about two or three months later because at that time there was waiting list. i took the various classes on how to present yourself and make a resume and thorough job search with their help i was able to land a job which i started in the middle of may. >> how did you hear about it? >> the job itself i found when i used to link in by working with

nova. >>. >> this jock has much more autonomy to it and working with the or the organization and manufacturing organization to take designs and bring them in to operations. whereas before i was document control and more rubber-stamping and pushing papers. so this is much more exciting job. >> you have a lot more job skills. >> absolutely. training through nova and program management certificate. so they funded that training and then i took the examination and class. >> it sounds like an incredible program. what can other people learn from this? >> the key is, a lot of people have forgotten the great skills they have to offer to an employer and be able to share

those and targeted a resume and their interview skills and networking. people are not comfortable with that and enhancing that skill so they can network in their own style. >> it's scary when you go out there, you are comfortable in your own zone and to put yourself out there how do they accomplish that? >> pro match is member driven organization. we have people working together. 200 members at any one time and they support one another to help each other feel comfortable and confident in presenting themselves. so one person is down and other person is up and they give other peer support which is an incredible part of it. >> mary, you found this to be very helpful? >> right, sometimesome days you don't want to be there and one day they pick you up and another

day you pick somebody else up so it is amazing. >> we can find all the information about you on your website. >> that is corrected. >> thank you so much. and congratulations? >> thank you, i'm really happy. >> i hope a lot of other people take advantage of the service. >> we do have to take another break. coming up next, we want to talk to a popular career and technical education program in san francisco. stay with us, we'll be right back. -dad, why e you getting that? -that's my cereal.

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course work in emt and paramedic school and with the berkeley fire department. thank you for being here. >> city college i spent a lot of time there so i'm happy to have you folks here. your department train students in different fields such as law enforcement. what are some of the other things. >> there is a focus for police officers and sheriffs. we also provide training in forensic identification careers. but also leads to other possibilities in federal government. we provide contacts that are independent in military or do some training or entry level work in law enforcement. the degree programs are really designed for initial entry jobs that don't require a four-year degree but we'll be able to get people involved in the work force.

>> it's about two years? >> right and even though there are difficulties with cutbacks with government agencies and public safety, there are still a lot of jobs out there. we tell people to be smarter and how we can prepare them for it. >> i know there are a lot of jobs out there. aubrey, you were four-year university majoring in psychology and then you switched why? >> i just found i wouldn't have the passion for psychology that i thought that i would. i always had sort of a desire to be a firefighter, but when i started looking in to it. mass was there and fire service definitely. >> and you went to city college to do this? >> i did. i took fire sciences classes and paramedic. >> so for city college and even though student rates have gone up, it was still affordable.

it was very affordable. much more so than the four years i was going to before, that was another plus. >> and jim, we were hearing about layoffs to police and fire departments. do you see that? >> not so much in our program right now. we do see promotional course work. we have fire officer certainty fi indication tracks. those are people that want to promote to lieutenant or captain. but we do see some lateral movement and we hear of it. we have a good network of skills and people that are hiring for their skills we train people in. >>. >> in my exposure, the career, technical education programs at city colleg ides have a very good reputation out there in the community and throughout

the state. our programs and administration justice and fire sciences is very popular. we're impacted with full enrollment, no drop-off in students and those are good signs. >> i know you had to work and go to school. tell us about that? >> i was working as an emt to get experience, so i worked there to go to state college on different days, at night. >> so it helped you keep the competitive edge? >> definitely. and those on my resume look great. and they have anything. all my time, it got everything i needed at city college. >> that is about the begs endorsement you can get. >> thank you very much. >> we appreciate you being here. >> we are out of time so i wanted to thank our special guests for joining us. that is it for this edition of beyond the headlines.

we have information about all of our guests and programs they have available for you on our website at abc7.com. all you have to do is click on the community page. if you are looking for community resources in your neighborhood, you heard them talking about, just dial 211 for help. what is that number? 211 for help. thanks so much for joining us. have a great week. we'll see you next time. bye-bye. [ male announcer ] you don't make the world's best chicken

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