Hiring Hall Kept Busy in 1st Week : Employment: Over 140 have registered with Carlsbad jobs program, but day-labor employers aren’t utilizing the county-sponsored operation.

More than 140 job seekers have signed up at a new hiring center in Carlsbad after just eight days of operation, exceeding organizers’ expectations.

“It’s a little more than I expected, considering the newness of the facility and its location,” said George Lopez, executive director of SER/Jobs for Progress, the nonprofit job-training organization contracted by the city to operate the center.

About 35 of those registered at the center as of Tuesday had been placed in permanent jobs in warehouses, bookkeeping, customer service, and shipping and receiving, organizers said. The center opened July 15.

Casual day-labor jobs such as pulling weeds and cutting grass were in short supply, however, a fact that organizers attributed to the facility’s obscure location.

Although most employers call hiring services when they need workers, day-labor employers simply drive down El Camino Real and pick up workers.

The trailer is situated off a driveway south of Faraday Drive, on the east side of El Camino Real.

The center is part of a six-month experiment to reduce curbside hiring and ease tensions that peaked a year ago when the owner of the Country Store handcuffed and humiliated a migrant worker loitering near the store.

That incident galvanized political efforts to find jobs and housing for the city’s largely homeless population, estimated at anywhere from 500 to 5,000.

Organizers of the center emphasize that it is not solely for Latino migrants but serves a wide range of clientele seeking all kinds of employment, from senior citizens to veterans on terminal leave to college graduates.

“It’s been very diverse so far, and we’re very happy with that,” said Jim Lundgren, director of the center, which opened July 15 and is the second such program in North County. A hiring hall in Encinitas opened in November 1989.

About half of the center’s clients have been migrant day laborers, said Leonard Pimentel, a job placement specialist at the center.

The city’s primary purpose in creating the center was to draw transient migrant workers off the streets, particularly El Camino Real, where some Carlsbad residents had complained of migrant trespassers.

However, men looking for jobs continued to line El Camino Real on Tuesday morning. Pimentel said word of the hiring hall probably had not spread widely.

Immigrants must be legally documented and have filled out an Immigration and Naturalization Service employment eligibility form in order to register with the hiring center. Pimentel suggested that some of those still on the street might be illegal immigrants.

Because about half of the clients are not migrant laborers, many seeking work at the center have skills not often associated with people who seek help at a hiring hall, Pimentel said.

People with secretarial skills, waitressing experience and “an insurance expert from Italy” have filled out registration cards with the center, Pimentel said.

“This is one of the stops they are making when they are dropping off their resumes with various companies,” Pimentel said.

On the employer side, the center has recruited Apple One, an employment services group, to match clients with employers, and local businesses have been faxing in employment opportunities.

“To me, it was a new source of possible recruiting, and you never know until you try, and this seemed to be a perfect opportunity,” said Marty Palecki, human resources manager at the Carlsbad-based Linear Corp., which was looking for temporary help in straightening out an electronic parts warehouse.

Although the position offered is only temporary, there is “a good possibility” that there may be referrals that are permanent and asking for higher skills, said Palecki, whose firm manufactures wireless security systems.

Daniels Cablevision, a neighbor of the hiring center, has also offered assistance in techniques in interviewing and filling out applications.

“If the real objective is full-time employment rather than contract piecework, it seems that some formal assistance would be a positive thing,” said Joni Odum, vice president and general manager of Daniels Cablevision.

Lundgren said experiences of other hiring halls in Southern California have taught them an important lesson: keep good records.

“We are keeping records on everyone who comes through here, from vets to immigrants to youth to seniors, because it helps in future grant applications,” Lundgren said.

“A lot of grant programs say, ‘If you can prove this, we can help you,’ and good records let us offer that evidence,” Lundgren said.

The city has earmarked $46,300 to fund the hiring center for six months and expects SER to aggressively look for other funding, Lundgren said.

The hiring center operates from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday, except holidays, and from 7 a.m. to noon Saturday.