Hundreds Hope This Knott’s Queue Will End With a Job

Liz Varian, out of work and with bills coming due, joined more than 300 job hunters Saturday at Knott’s Berry Farm’s 29th annual job fair at Western High School in Anaheim.

Varian said the job market has become so tough that she is willing to start at the bottom, even if it means only seasonal work at the Buena Park amusement park.

“I’ve been looking, looking and looking,” said Varian, 34, a single mother with a 15-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter. “I’m at a point where I don’t know what to do. I’ve got to pay for rent and put dinner on the table. I might probably go homeless if the economy keeps this way.”

Varian, who clerked at Home Depot, said she has been looking for work for two months through six temporary agencies. She has done some office work but hasn’t been able to find a permanent job because she has no training or computer skills.

Like Varian, more and more people nationwide are looking for work. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that the nation’s August unemployment rate had jumped to 4.9%, the highest in four years. The most affected sector was manufacturing and factory workers, according to the Labor Department.

In part because of the economic downturn, officials at Knott’s said there has been no shortage of job applicants. The amusement park plans to hire 600 people to fill seasonal positions for Knott’s “Scary Farm” during Halloween--including jobs as monsters, sales clerks and security personnel, mostly paying $6.50 an hour. By the end of Saturday, officials received 338 applications and filled 250 jobs.

“We’re not choosy,” said Laurie Wilson, manager of employment and training. “We just want the right people.”

That was good news for Jose Vega, 18, who knows the feeling of rejection.

“No one wants to hire a kid who just got out of high school,” said Vega, who quit his job at Papa John’s pizzeria after he said his hours were cut. He has been unemployed since July. “They think we don’t know anything, so it’s hard to find a job.”

Along with serious job seekers, the people who came to Anaheim on Saturday included high school students looking for their first job and adults eager for a fun pastime and some extra pocket change.

Despite the increases in unemployment and layoffs, wages continued to rise in August for U.S. workers. Average hourly earnings rose 4 cents to $14.38, a 0.3% increase from the previous month.

But the job seekers who came to Anaheim on Saturday complained that most entry-level jobs pay minimum wage--which, they say, isn’t enough.

Alfonso Gutierrez, 43, of Lakewood said he suffered from depression and lost 30 pounds after he was laid off as a gardener this year and discovered that he needed a kidney transplant. He said that over the last six months, he has applied for entry-level jobs at Home Depot, the U.S. Post Office, Kaiser Permanente, Ross Dress for Less, Marshalls and McDonald’s--all without success. He said his wife works as a live-in nurse to support him and their two children.

“It’s been so hard. I want to work in any position but they don’t hire me because I’ve been sick,” he said. “Employers are getting picky. They don’t want to pay for medical bills when they have a pool of healthy people wanting jobs.”

Frank Rivas was laid off at Seagate Technology in Anaheim last year and took a job as a factory worker at an El Segundo semiconductor company--taking a $25,000-a-year pay cut. He spent the last four months looking for a second job, a search that brought him to Anaheim to apply for a job at Knott’s.

“There’s a sense of worry when you hear all these people are getting laid off,” said Rivas, 51, of Garden Grove, who is also trying to save money for a wedding. He packs his lunch, hasn’t attended any concerts and quit using his credit cards.

“I only pour $10 of gas in my car,” he said. “If it gets low before the end of the week, I stay home if I don’t need to go anywhere specific. That means no more taking drives. One day, life is good. At any time, you have to lower your standard of living.”

Knott’s Berry Farm officials said they should be able to fill the spots by mid-month and begin employee orientation and training.

Different positions at the theme park require different skills. For example, monster positions need to be filled by people with high energy and an ability to get physical.

“It takes a certain personality to scare the daylights out of people for 21 nights,” said Dana Hammontree, a spokeswoman for the amusement park.

People like 19-year-old Jovan Tellez of Fullerton, who came to the job fair dressed as a vampire, complete with white contact lenses and a black suit.

“I scare my family all the time,” Tellez said.

He got the job.