MESA, Ariz. (AP) -- Lawrance Hester did electrical work in the construction industry before the economy went south.
Now, he's among the ever-growing legion of unemployed struggling to find work and get back on track financially.
The Chandler resident was at that city's new Goodwill Career Center last week perusing employment possibilities, dismayed by the low pay offered by numerous employers.
"These jobs now, they're talking about $8.50 to $10 an hour," he said. "How do you live on $10 an hour? You've got a family and stuff, and you've been making $36 or $40 an hour, and some of these jobs offer you $7.25 an hour. It almost forces you to go into business."
Gracie Vasquez, also of Chandler, lost her inspection job several months ago and was looking at online job ads at the Goodwill center, at Alma School and Ray roads.
She's taken odd jobs here and there to help make ends meet, but has found nothing steady.
"I'm looking for anything," she said. "I've done a wide variety of clerical, warehouse and inspection. I've been looking everywhere. There's a lot of jobs, but it depends on if they want you."
Evidence of continuing high unemployment can be found at any career center across metropolitan Phoenix.
The Goodwill Career Center in Chandler just opened Tuesday and already had a steady stream of people needing help.
"We have 10 career centers within our territory, and nine in Maricopa County, and in those 10 centers we've seen over 80,000 visits so far this year," said Lisa Wilham, Goodwill of Central Arizona's vice president of mission services. "In all of last year, we had 64,000 visits, so the volume is definitely increasing."
The centers help job seekers create and update their resumes, draft cover letters, and search through job leads and apply for jobs online or via fax/telephone. People also can meet with local, hiring employers face to face.
"It's taking people about three to four visits to a career center before they're successful in finding employment or they've moved on to a different area," Wilham said.
"In the past, what we've seen ... is two to 2.4 visits per individual."
Employers appear not to be shedding as many jobs as during the previous nine months, but it's still taking a long time for those who lost their jobs to find work, she said.
"You still have those same candidates out there who may have lost their job over the last six to nine months and who are competing for very limited spaces," Wilham said.
The Maricopa Workforce Connections career center in Gilbert remains slammed with people desperate for work, said Terry Farrell, center coordinator.
The center offers skills assessment, career development and retraining, and placement services. It also works with employers to help them fill openings.
"People's attendance to our job-readiness workshops have been off the chart," he said.
"We're seeing a trickle of job postings coming in, but it is a trickle in comparison to what we were seeing in years past. The foot traffic is probably right around 5,000 a month, and we're used to about 3,000 to 4,000."
It's harder to help people because volume is so high and resources are limited, Farrell said.
"If there was more money, then everybody who ... wanted some type of training or education, we could definitely give it to them," he said. "But then, even when they're trained, with the trickle of jobs coming in, you're still stuck.
"In the past, we've had about 29 employers a month coming into the center, and now we're at maybe four to five," Farrell said. "That's better than (last winter) when we had zilch, nothing."
