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September 22, 2009

Events offer aid for job seekers

By George Mast • Courier-Post Staff • September 22, 2009

Area job seekers could stand to gain from increased job training programs slated at libraries this fall and from a proposal out of Washington to extend unemployment benefits.

From resume workshops to lessons on interview skills, Burlington, Camden and Gloucester county libraries are offering increased assistance to residents looking for work. The programs are being provided in part by matching grants from the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, which serves more than 600 libraries in South Jersey and is funded by the New Jersey State Library.

A $1,600 matching grant provided to the Gloucester County Library System will double the amount of programs offered at its branches, said county library public information officer Nancy Polhamus.

"We're seeing more and more requests for this kind of programming," Polhamus said.
Karen Hyman, executive director of South Jersey Library Cooperative, said the JOBS Project is aimed at helping local libraries meet the growing needs of their patrons.

"What we were trying to do was really jump-start something in terms of libraries doing this kind of programming," Hyman said.
Aside from matching funds that libraries put toward programming, the cooperative developed a database of experts for libraries to call on to lead the various training programs.

Debbie Dennis, associate director of the Camden County Library System, said the county is trying to schedule programming at as many of its branches as possible later this fall with the $500 matching grant it received. Exact programming dates for Camden County have not been set.

Dennis said the additional programming will supplement help already being provided through the county's Your Library Your Lifeline initiative.
"We very much appreciate the opportunity to expand because we are serving so many people," she said.

New Jersey's unemployment rate for August was 9.7 percent, the same as the nation's rate.
Fifteen people went to the county's first program -- Starting Out, Starting Over -- last week at its Mullica Hill branch, Polhamus said.

"There was a wide array of ages and circumstances," she said, noting participants included those who had been out of work for several months and some who had been looking for years.

Those who have been out of work so long they're about to exhaust their unemployment benefits could also get help soon from emergency legislation proposed in the House this week to help millions of Americans.
A bill offered by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and expected to pass easily would provide 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits for more than 300,000 jobless people who live in states, including New Jersey, with unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent and who are scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of September.
The 13-week extension would supplement the 26 weeks of benefits most states offer and the federally funded extensions of up to 53 weeks that Congress approved in legislation last year and in the stimulus bill enacted last February.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach George Mast at (856) 486-2465 at gmast@camden.gannett.com

Posted by tumulty at September 22, 2009 4:01 PM

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