Employment

Money from President Obama's stimulus package has created nearly 400 jobs for Los Angeles County residents, but the state's budget crisis now threatens to throw the newly employed back onto the welfare rolls. The workers found jobs through a county-administered program announced earlier this year that is slated to use $200 million in stimulus funds and eventually create 10,000 temporary jobs. If Gov.

While Detroit's automakers struggle to rebuild their sputtering operations, the key to jump-starting Michigan's economy may lie 80 miles northwest of the Motor City. This is the home of Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. It makes a material crucial for constructing photovoltaic panels. And that has turned this snow-covered hamlet into an unlikely hotbed for solar energy. On Dec. 15, the same week that General Motors Corp. and Chrysler begged $17.

Even in choppy waters, recruiters are still angling for the perfect job candidate. But employers don't have the time or resources to sift through all the applications churned up by the recession. California's unemployment rate hit 10.5% in February -- the highest in nearly 26 years -- while the national rate stands at 8.1%. To boost your chances of getting plucked, you'll need a top-notch resume.

Molly Stach thought she was doing everything right until she got laid off from her public relations job in December. Since then, the 26-year-old has been struggling with self-doubt. "Why don't they want to hire me?" she asked of the companies not responding to the resumes she sends out each week. "I went through four years of college, graduated. You get praised while you are working and then all of a sudden you are not employable."

A hodgepodge crowd gathers here twice a week for handouts just steps from City Hall and an empty kosher deli. Outside the local food pantry snakes a line of Guatemalans wearing court-ordered ankle monitors, imported workers from the Pacific island of Palau and unemployed town natives -- almost all there because of a dramatic raid that has left a deep mark in the way the U.S. views and deals with illegal immigration.

When the going gets tough, the tough buy local. That's the crux of the more than $800-billion economic stimulus bill under consideration in the Senate. It contains a "buy American" provision requiring that most stimulus-funded projects use only American-made gear and goods. The House passed its own version of the legislation last week. It stipulates that we not buy any iron and steel from pesky foreigners seeking a slice of stimulus pie.

President Obama billed it as an adrenaline jolt -- a $787-billion stimulus package that not only would put people back to work, but also underwrite construction and energy projects the country had long neglected. But with the economy still sputtering and some experts doubting the program was meeting its goals, Obama vowed Monday to accelerate stimulus spending with the goal of creating or saving 600,000 jobs by summer's end.

Since landing his first job in the video game industry in 1992 as a salesman at Capcom Co., Justin Berenbaum never wanted for work -- until this month. The 39-year-old from Woodland Hills was laid off from his job as vice president of business development at EmSense Corp., a San Francisco game design consulting firm. A few days later, he was roaming the halls of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, browsing the career pavilion and hitting up former colleagues for leads.

Tourism has surpassed international trade as Los Angeles County's top industry in a new ranking that reflects the growing effect of hotels, shops and restaurants as job creators in Southern California. "This just goes to show that tourism is not just touring the stars' homes and visiting Disneyland," said economist Jack Kyser, author of the report for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. But the news also has a darker side.

The notion that the only safe job in a recession is a state Civil Service job was punctured this week when a Sacramento court gave the governor the authority to take an ax to the government payroll. Thursday's Superior Court ruling, which greenlighted Gov.