Job Seekers

Before sunrise Monday, Kevin and Shelley Taylor set out from their Millersville home to a new employment center for the Maryland Live! Casino, a slots parlor next to the Arundel Mills mall seeking workers for 1,500 jobs. Having tracked the progress of what will be the state's largest casino, the Taylors believe the facility could provide opportunity for their five-member family. Though Kevin Taylor has a job, he wants a better-paying one. And Shelley Taylor has been out of work for several months.

These groups meet regularly. Bereavement Support Group - Fourth Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. This group is for adults who are mourning the loss of a loved one. All are welcome. St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Room 105, 8300 Old Columbia Road, Fulton. 410-792-0470, ext. 214. Caregivers support group - Fourth Thursday, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Winter Growth Adult Day Care Center, 5466 Ruth Keeton Way, Columbia. 410-964-9616. CHADD of Greater Baltimore, Howard County Branch - Fourth Tuesday, Sept.-May, 7 p.m. Speakers, information and discussion about AD/HD.

Young workers will have to scramble to land jobs — even unpaid ones — this summer, but the employment outlook for them is brighter than it was last year. "The economy generally is picking up," says Robert Trumble, a management professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. "If unemployment keeps inching down … it increases opportunities for teens in the summer. " Last summer was the worst for young job seekers since 1948, when the government began tracking the numbers.

Maryland employers added 1,500 jobs in March — thanks entirely to growth in the private sector — but the state's unemployment rate inched up as the pool of would-be workers expanded more rapidly. The jobless rate was 6.6 percent in March, up from 6.5 percent in February, the U.S. Department of Labor estimated Friday. That's because the labor force, the number of adults working or looking for work, grew by 4,200 people in March, according to the agency. An improving economic situation typically brings out more job seekers, as people who had been discouraged by earlier difficulties get back in the hunt.

Nothing is so heartening to job-seekers nowadays as word that thousands of openings are headed their way. That's the siren call of BRAC — the military base realignment and closure effort that's relocating jobs to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County, Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County and other installations in Maryland. About 12,000 jobs are moving to the two Baltimore-area bases between August and next summer, along with thousands more off-base contractor jobs. And they are coming as unemployment is still near generational highs.

Your recent article "Help's on the way with career center" (Aug. 12)," highlights a great tool to help residents of Baltimore County to connect to employment opportunities. During these difficult economic times, a greater number of Baltimore area residents have found themselves out of work, through no fault of their own. As local companies have downsized or simply closed their doors, their former employees need to access resources to re-enter the workforce. In particular, the county's Mobile Career Center can help jobseekers access occupational training programs that can give them the skills they need to compete for jobs in areas of our local economy that hold promise for future career options.

At a time when employers receive hundreds of applications for a single job opening, a glowing reference could be the difference between standing out and sitting at home. Enter CareerExcuse.com, a website that promises to "act as your past employer" and provide you with a positive reference. "You provide us with your name, employment dates, ending salary and job titles, we do the rest!!" the site pledges. Of course it's never OK to lie, and doing so can backfire. But some workers are desperate in what is the worst job market in more than a generation.

Maryland has 210,000 unemployed residents searching for work. Maryland employers have 70,000 job openings they're trying to fill. The unemployment rate would drop overnight, state officials say, if many of the jobless people had the skills needed to fill those empty positions. Unfortunately, it's not working out nearly that neatly. Economic shifts — some potentially temporary, some permanent — have stranded an increasing number of unemployed workers in job limbo because their skills don't match up with employer demand.

Thousands flocked to the 5th Regiment Armory in Baltimore for a job fair Monday that featured government and private employers but few real job offers. Here are a few participants' views: Emory Proctor, 24, a graduate of Hampton University with a degree in business administration, has a job but is open to a new opportunity: "It's easier to find a job when you have a job. ... Right now, [in] my current position, I do pretty well. As I said, I'm with the financial services division, so, I mean, the people that are trying to invest, I do OK, but it's so rocky and up and down that you never know."

I have applied for many jobs, but no one calls me for an interview. For 10 years, I have worked in call centers for tech support and customer service. My resume has been professionally written, but I am not getting any bites at all. What am I to do? Because many call-center jobs are being outsourced overseas, you have a lot of competition. To get an interview, you have to stand out from the crowd. And to stand out, you need personal contacts and a first-class resume. After 10 years, you must know a lot people in your field.

Sunday, Feb. 5 Black History Month Vocalist Ashley Parker will perform songs of hope and inspiration in observance of Black History Month during the 10 a.m. worship service at Christ United Methodist Church, 7246 Cradlerock Way in the Owen Brown Interfaith Center in Columbia. All are welcome. Information: 410-381-6329. Tuesday, Feb, 7 School news The Board of Education will hold a public work session on the superintendent's proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2013 at 1 p.m. in the boardroom, 10910 Route 108 in Ellicott City.

A Pikesville steak house needs a kitchen manager, a Timonium restaurant is looking for a line cook and wait staff is being hired for a 70-seat tavern about to open in Potomac. Information like this isn't impossible to come by, but a new web initiative named Chef Link is setting about to be a clearinghouse for job openings. The Chef Link began in Maryland, but there are now job listing from as far away as California. Using profile information created by job seekers -- position, location, salary and cuisine type -- The Chef Link assigns a score, ranging from 1 to 25, to help applicants target job openings best matching their requirements.

LeTip of Howard County: Business Networking and Tips — LeTip of Howard County: Business Networking and Tips invites attendees to bring business cards for networking opportunities. 7:15 a.m. Wednesdays, Oakland Manor, 5430 Vantage Point Road, Columbia. Job Club — First Tuesdays, 10 a.m. Open to all adults. Free. Designed to motivate job seekers and connect them with needed resources to expand their network to land their ideal job. Space is limited, register by the Friday prior to meeting.

Maryland lost 2,500 jobs in August, reversing some of the gains made earlier in the summer and pushing the state unemployment rate to 7.3 percent, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday. The reductions hit as growth nationwide came to a standstill. But economists warned that the Maryland estimates are complicated by a pair of anomalies: A 4,400-job drop in the information sector was largely temporary, a result of the two-week strike by Verizon Communications workers, while a 6,600-job gain in local government jobs could be illusory.

Business Women's Network of Howard County - Third Wednesdays, luncheon meetings. Promotes and supports a network of professional women in their careers as executives, business owners and leaders. Homewood Suites, 8320 Benson Drive, Columbia. $45 per guest. 410-740-0126. http://www.bwn-hoco.org or admin@bwn-hoco.org . Job Club - First Tuesdays, 10 a.m. Open to all adults. Free. Designed to motivate job seekers and connect them with needed resources to expand their network to land their ideal job. Space is limited, register by the Friday prior to meeting.

Aunt Susan's Kitchen Academy - Aug. 28, 2-4 p.m. and 4:30-6:30 p.m. at Aunt Susan's Kitchen, 15101 Baltimore Ave. Learn how to cook Cajun shrimp sunken in butternut squash soup, pan-seared tilapia, roast chicken and more. Space is limited; sign up at the restaurant. $40 per person, $75 for couples and $20 off groups of five. Community Job Fair - Sept. 14, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Club Meade, 6600 Mapes Road, Fort Meade. Fair is open to all job seekers (veterans and non-veterans)

As more students and young job seekers turn to social networking sites such as MySpace, Friendster and Facebook to connect with friends and write about their personal lives, employers and recruiters are following right behind. They are tapping into Internet search engines to cull information about job candidates. Job seekers have reason to worry: In some cases employers and recruiters are using the information to weed out candidates. Three-quarters of 102 executive recruiters surveyed last fall by ExecuNet, of Norwalk, Conn.

ALL OVER Maryland, the lines are forming and the job seekers are putting in their claims. It's a beautiful thing to see. The job seekers claim to know somebody, or they claim to have been generous when it counted. Sometimes, they even claim to have skills. This gets us to the mayor named Tommy D'Alesandro Jr. and the political boss named Jack Pollack, who were smart enough to know better. D'Alesandro was mayor for three terms, and Pollack was a political boss forever. You can still hear the echoes of their conversations today, from a distance of no more than half a century.

Maryland has 210,000 unemployed residents searching for work. Maryland employers have 70,000 job openings they're trying to fill. The unemployment rate would drop overnight, state officials say, if many of the jobless people had the skills needed to fill those empty positions. Unfortunately, it's not working out nearly that neatly. Economic shifts — some potentially temporary, some permanent — have stranded an increasing number of unemployed workers in job limbo because their skills don't match up with employer demand.

Young workers will have to scramble to land jobs — even unpaid ones — this summer, but the employment outlook for them is brighter than it was last year. "The economy generally is picking up," says Robert Trumble, a management professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. "If unemployment keeps inching down … it increases opportunities for teens in the summer. " Last summer was the worst for young job seekers since 1948, when the government began tracking the numbers.