The Job of Finding a Job : Assistance: The Employment Development Department opened an office in Mission Viejo, making it more convenient for unemployed South County residents to get help and bringing relief to four other county offices.

Life got easier for some of south Orange County’s recession victims Tuesday with the opening of a state Employment Development office closer to home.

“When I heard they were opening this office I almost cried with joy,” said Jimmy Harris, 44, of Lake Forest. His satisfaction was echoed by many other unemployed people who were at the Mission Viejo facility shortly after it opened at 8 a.m.

Previously, most South County residents have had to tackle the traffic to the state office in Santa Ana and then endure up to three-hour waits in line for service.

Lines for unemployment insurance and job counseling moved along much more rapidly at the new Mission Viejo office Tuesday morning despite such first-day glitches as a computer problem with terminals at the service counters and a temporary delay in turning on the telephones.

Sally Casanova of Corona del Mar, who had been laid off last Friday for the second time in three months, said she is glad that she wouldn’t have to spend most of the day applying for unemployment benefits when she wanted to be looking for work.

“It just took me an hour,” she said as she headed for the door a little after 9 a.m. She had been laid off from an administrative position with the American College of Trial Lawyers.

A smaller crowd is only one of the reasons lines are expected to move more swiftly at the new Mission Viejo office.

Jo Ann McGuire, manager of the office, said the people-processing system there has been modeled after those used by the state Department of Motor Vehicles and the Employment Development office in Riverside.

A key element of the system, she said, is a “start here” window where clients receive the appropriate forms to fill out and then are directed to the proper window where staff have the expertise to help them.

McGuire said the department had been planning to open an office in Mission Viejo for the past six to seven years. It is just coincidental, she said, that it is opening in the middle of a recession, when the four other Orange County offices are swamped with work and clients.

McGuire said the other Orange County offices in Fullerton, Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Anaheim, as well as the Oceanside office in San Diego County, have transferred 8,000 of their unemployment claims to Mission Viejo for servicing. The greatest relief will be felt by the Santa Ana office, which has been getting about 22% of its workload from South County.

The 16,000-square-foot office in the HighPark business center will serve the county population from Lake Forest to San Clemente. Eager clients began trying the door at the office as early as last week. When the office opened at 8 a.m. Tuesday there were 35 people waiting to get in.

The Mission Viejo office is intended not only to provide greater convenience to the unemployed, McGuire said, but also to create a closer relationship with employers in the area.

“We are going to market EDD,” McGuire said. She intends to join all the local chambers of commerce and to have the entire staff watch for and contact new businesses that move into the area and which may be hiring.

Roberta Masek, supervisor of job services at the new office, said that last Wednesday, the same day the furniture arrived, representatives of United Parcel Service in Laguna Niguel “showed up with job orders in hand.”

Masek said she will be expanding the department’s service of providing pre-screening of job applicants for employers--a task that it already performs for the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point and will assume for a new Mrs. Knott’s restaurant scheduled to open in Santa Margarita in December.

By midmorning, Masek said, it was apparent from those filing claims that South County has a varied and experienced work force. Those recently laid off and filing for unemployment insurance, she said, included marketing specialists and managers, engineers, clerical workers and waitresses.

Though not everything went smoothly with the computers and the telephones, the problems were short-lived. The telephones began working shortly after 9 a.m. and the computer problem was fixed by 1 p.m. The temporary problem with the terminals meant, however, that those filing claims earlier in the day would be mailed individualized reports on their unemployment benefits rather being able to immediately learn how much they would receive in benefits.

The unemployed can apply for unemployment insurance benefits that vary from $40 to $230 a week, depending on the amount of wages a worker has previously earned. The payments end usually after 26 weeks, though in the current period of high unemployment nationally the federal government has authorized extensions of up to an additional 26 weeks.

The unemployment rate in Orange County was 6.1% in July, which is the most current figure. In July, 1990, the rate was 3.6%.

Clients didn’t seem to be disturbed by the few equipment problems. Instead, they marveled at the cleanliness of the lobby and the friendliness of the counter workers.

“This is a very friendly place and it is all organized,” said Betty Matovich of San Clemente, who had driven a friend to the office. “But give it a couple of weeks,” she added skeptically.

Rose McCormick, who was laid off in July from a job as an instructional aide at San Juan Elementary School, said she arrived at the Mission Viejo office with her two children at 7:45 a.m. and was 10th in line at the door.

“I love it. I didn’t have to get up an hour and a half earlier to fight traffic,” the 30-year-old San Juan Capistrano resident said.

Kim Critchlow of Rancho Santa Margarita, an unemployed word processor, said that when she went to the Santa Ana office she worried for her safety and that of her two young boys who accompany her. “I’m afraid of Santa Ana,” she said.

Moreover, Critchlow said, it took her only 10 minutes to drive to the Mission Viejo office and her business was completed in 20 minutes.

“It is just phenomenal. We still have time to go to lunch.”

New Location Recently opened umemployment office offers more convenience for South County residents.