Edmund Wadeson, laid off twice in the past year, and his wife, Colleen, are “looking at our innate passions and strengths”— and some retraining — to get through the tough job market. He’s putting together a children’s book with a music CD, and she’s making Christmas ornaments to make some extra money. They have two children, Merritt, 4, and Madeline, 3.

Despite a difficult job climate in Central Oregon, the unemployed are finding ways to cope through retraining and applying existing skills to new jobs.

They range from blue-collar to professional workers who have lost their jobs since the economic downturn started more than a year ago, including many in the real estate industry who are wondering how to find work that will pay their mortgage, their car payments and their children’s tuition.

Edmund Wadeson, who had a full-time position as an architectural intern, said he was laid off twice in the past year by two separate architectural firms in Bend.

“Bend is a small community, but it’s really hard here,” he said. “A lot of people are hurting. I got downsized, and I got downsized again.”

The job picture is “pretty grim” for laid-off workers, including an “overwhelming” number of mortgage loan processors, mortgage bankers and other real estate professionals, said Ann Delach, adult programs manager for Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, which handles work readiness and training throughout the tri-county region.

“We’re seeing record numbers of people in our lobbies the last couple of months, and we’re just now beginning to enter our busy time of year,” said Delach, who counted 153 applications for three entry level programing assistant positions last week.

“There are always jobs available, but many of them are not family-wage jobs,” Delach said. “That’s the problem.”

Record unemployment

Jobless rates hovered between 8 percent and 9 percent in Jefferson and Crook counties in August, the highest marks for both counties since the 1990s, as layoffs in the wood products industries and lower than expected job growth hit Madras hard, Delach said.

Jefferson County, which saw layoffs at Bright Wood Corp., Seaswirl Boats and Warm Springs Forest Products within the last two years and fewer new jobs than anticipated at Deer Ridge Correctional Facility, has been “in an employment crisis” since last year, Delach said.

Deschutes County, meanwhile, saw 6.8 percent unemployment in August, higher than expected during a time of the year when tourism and construction jobs are typically plentiful. The unemployment rate was 4.6 percent in August 2007.

Displaced workers are flooding the training department’s offices from La Pine to Madras, Delach said.

“They’re collecting unemployment, and they’re retraining,” she said. “It’s not enough to just send people out the door with a referral. We have to take an objective look at their skills.”

The county’s welfare assistance program, the Department of Human Services, is coping with a 30.5 percent increase in its caseload, said Tammy Kautz, operations manager for the department’s self-sufficiency office in Bend.

“It’s staggering,” Kautz said. “We don’t project for this type of caseload growth. People need to realize our community’s in crisis.”

The department, which had a food stamp caseload of 2,775 last year, currently has a caseload of 3,622, she said.

“We’re serving a lot more of the middle class than we used to,” Kautz said. “We’re seeing people who were making $150,000 last year who are seeking food stamps now. Contractors are being laid off daily.”

One food stamps applicant, Todd Gaunt, 33, had seen steady income as a server in restaurants around Bend until about a year ago, he said. But the downturn in the local economy resulted first in fewer hours at a downtown restaurant. Then he was laid off, he said.

Declining job opportunities coupled with a DUII have made finding work difficult, said Gaunt, who moved out of his downtown one-bedroom apartment this summer and is sleeping in his truck.

“There’s jobs to be had,” Gaunt said. “The (DUII) put a crimp in it. I haven’t had an income, period, recently.”

The WorkSource Oregon Employment Department, saw a 40 percent to 45 percent increase in job-seekers during the three-month period from July to September, according to Laurel Werhane, office manager for the department.

“We’re seeing people feeling almost desperate, especially with winter season arriving,” Werhane said. “There could be someone who was in accounting or a bookkeeping job who would accept a position in retail because they’re running out of money, or they’re running out of unemployment benefits.”

Forced to ‘hunker down’

Twice laid off, Wadeson found work designing a house for clients in Redmond, but says the downturn has forced him and his wife, also in training to become an architect, to “hunker down.”

With the work provided by the one house, Wadeson has enough to make ends meet for now, he said. But it’s not enough to bank on for the future.

He would love to become a fly-fishing guide, but the couple has two children, and it wouldn’t be enough to support the family, he said.

“We’re working on a lot of different things,” Wadeson said. “We’re also looking at our innate passions and strengths. I’m putting together a children’s book with a CD of children’s music. We’re also looking at art projects. My wife makes Christmas ornaments out of found objects” for make extra money.

Wadeson is taking advantage of his time off to complete requirements for a sustainable building adviser certificate at Central Oregon Community College. By the time the program is completed, he will be able to consult with both municipalities and corporations on building projects, he said.

“It’s not a broadly recognized certificate, but it’s the direction that construction is heading,” he said. “The writing is on the wall.”

Wadeson also is preparing to take the architectural registration exams to qualify as a licensed architect, he said.

Another skilled tradesman, Michael Rivers, 45, has lived at the Shepherd’s House in north Bend for about a year.

Economic strains contributed to the breakup of his marriage and eventually cost him his construction job, he said.

“I had been working pretty steadily until about a year ago,” he said. “When the market crashed, I didn’t have a job or a place to live.”

Rivers had been a residential framer for 25 years, and has been able to pick up odd jobs and bartered out his services in exchange for food and a place to live, he said. He either stayed at friends’ homes or camped in the woods, he said.

The clean bed and meals at Shepherd’s House have given him the opportunity to explore educational options at Central Oregon Community College, he said.

He might return to school, with the help of federal grant programs, to get his associate degree, he said.

“I want to research the market and find out what’s paying,” he said. “Otherwise, I might leave the state. I could go to Texas or Louisiana, where there’s a lot of repair work. My ex-wife and son are thinking about leaving, too.”

This year’s economic downturn has produced notable strains in Central Oregon’s main industries — tourism and construction — said Peggy Huetten, an instructor in the Continuing Education Department at COCC in Bend.

Huetten is teaching a course — “Starting Out, Starting Over” — that addresses the massive shift in skills necessary for people to find work during a downturn in the economy.

“People need to have a sense of hope that there are avenues open to them,” Huetten said. “I try to encourage people, if they’re going to stay in the area, to try to find employment training in an industry that is going to support them.”

In her two-session course, Huetten discusses the changes occurring in the workplace, gives students the skills to assess their interests and abilities, and provides an economic outlook for different career options that are available.

Some careers that have potential during an economic downturn and require training available at COCC include:

•Phlebotomist, medical technician who draws blood from patients, requiring only a six-week training course;

•Car mechanic, because people will try to extend the life of their car instead of buying a new or used one;

•Cosmetologist or hairstylist, because “people still need to get a haircut,” Huetten said.

“Let’s face it. We live in a very small region where there’s not a lot of employment opportunities,” Huetten said. “But people have to find ways to get back to work and ride out the storm.”

Other well-attended training courses at COCC include tax preparation, professional bookkeeping, yoga teacher training and pharmacy technician training, according to Rachel Knox, program manager at the community college’s Continuing Education Department.

“A lot of people are looking at starting over — we’re at the leading edge of that,” Knox said. “People want some more options. It’s more than just being out of work. It’s about looking to make a change.”

Job hunting?

Resources for job-seekers, unemployment claims and retraining:

• Oregon Employment Department: www .workinginoregon.org

• Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council: www.coic.org

• Department of Human Services: www.oregon.gov

For classes and advising at Central Oregon Community College:

• cap.cocc.edu

• noncredit.cocc.edu/Professional+ Education/default.aspx