Job Center for Laid-Off Defense Workers Opens

A Los Angeles city-sponsored job training center for unemployed aerospace and defense industry workers opened Thursday, offering free counseling and job referrals.

The center, the first in the San Fernando Valley, was established at West Valley Community Center in Van Nuys to ease the economic pain of closures and layoffs in industries hit by budget cuts.

In the San Fernando Valley alone--home to about 120,000, or 40%, of defense industry jobs in Los Angeles County--about 8,000 workers may lose their jobs this year, according to the Los Angeles County Private Industry Council.

The city has allocated about $500,000 of the program’s $1.6-million budget to pay for free classes for about 175 workers in fields such as computer repair, structural and electrical mechanics and consumer electronics. The center will be operated by the United Auto Workers--Labor, Employment and Training Corp., a nonprofit group founded by the union.