Editor’s note: Ken’s last name was withheld at his request.

By Peter Cox, Tribune staff writer

Ken moved to Albert Lea from St. Paul three-and-a-half years ago. He wanted to live the small town life.

For two years, he had a steady job working for a local landlord who owned many rental spaces in town. But he lost that job when the owner decided to cut back on personnel.

Since then he has been without a job.

&uot;I’ve been looking steadily ever since then,&uot; he said.

&uot;I like Albert Lea,&uot; he said. &uot;It’s a nice little town. It’s just there’s no work.&uot;

Ken was sitting in the lobby at the Minnesota Workforce Development Center, waiting for a meeting with a counselor. He said he has taken training in heavy machinery, but the training hasn’t landed him a job.

&uot;It’s real frustrating,&uot; he said. &uot;I got four kids and my electricity was just turned off.&uot;

He said he’s received help from the Salvation Army and Operation Hope, both of which he said he’s grateful for. Still, he wants a steady paycheck.

&uot;I know a lot of people who are out of work,&uot; he said. &uot;Many of them weren’t just laid off temporarily either &045; it’s been a few months for most.&uot;

Though statistics nationally show that unemployment-benefit applications are at a five-month low, locally, the trend has gone the other way.

&uot;Unemployment in Freeborn County is up,&uot; said Brenda Miller, Labor Market Analyst for South Central and Southeast Minnesota for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

County wide, the unemployment rate was 5.3 percent. Statewide that rate is 4.7 percent.

Since May of 2001, the county’s unemployment rate has been at or above state rates.

According to Mary Hacker, who heads the local branch of Manpower, which helps employers find e

employees, a lot of people that were unemployed have taken positions where they are underemployed.

The company, she said, is doing well connecting people with jobs.

Throughout the county, there is a need for nurses and nursing aides, but other than those positions, most available jobs are for unskilled workers.

Miller said data for the county shows retails sales, fast food and wait staffing jobs are all available, but for the most part, skilled work is not easy to find.

Many residents are like Ken, according to Miller. They have been unemployed long enough to file for unemployment benefits.

&uot;The number of people collecting regular benefits is up 27 percent since last June,&uot; she said.

Nationally, those numbers have decreased, but locally, they’ve been driven up by downsizing. Hacker said that many industrial companies in the region have been doing that since the Farmland fire of 2001.

&uot;It’s an interesting dynamic because at one point in time a few years ago, we had more employers than workers looking,&uot; Hacker said. &uot;That has totally reversed itself. Hopefully it will turn around again.&uot;

(Contact Peter Cox at peter.cox @albertleatribune.com or 379-3439.)