Bill Nelson and Laura Gardner want with all their might to help people find jobs.

But their options are shrinking.

Postings at the Flathead One Stop Work Force Center, known as the Job Service, are below anything in Nelson's memory - about 50 on the Friday before Christmas.

"That's about as low as I've seen it," said Nelson, who manages the Job Service. "And those aren't appropriate for everybody."

A month ago, there were just under 100 postings. An average number a year ago would have been closer to 300.

With the Flathead's Nov. 30 unemployment rate at 7.3 percent - 1.4 points higher than a month earlier, a full 2.4 percent higher than Montana as a whole and more than a half point above the nation's 6.7 percent rate - 3,461 people are looking for work in the Flathead.

It means nearly 70 people could be vying for every job posting at the local Job Service office.

That number doesn't include those who finally dropped off the rolls after using up their unemployment benefits. Nor does it include workers whose bosses are cutting back their hours in hopes of pulling through the recession while keeping good employees. By meeting certain qualifications, they can draw partial unemployment.

"It would be a small reimbursement," said Gardner, supervisor for the programs unit, "but it would still fill in the gaps."

Gardner supervises the partial unemployment and other programs available through the Job Service.

For example, Trade Adjustment Assistance is available to workers laid off from companies that can show the federal government that the layoffs were due, at least in part, to competition from foreign markets. The assistance can pay for job searches, relocation and job retraining for occupations with a better future.

"We've got to help guarantee that they will have a job when they're done" with retraining, Gardner said. "And that's not easy to predict. What was a good growing profession a year ago is not necessarily today."

Typically half of the eligible workers sign up, she said. But current levels in all programs have swelled to the point where her three case managers are working with more than 65 clients each. In a "normal" job environment she keeps it around 20 or 30 clients per manager, each one working with a client for two to three years.

Gardner is seeing more desperation among Job Service clients who don't qualify for any special programs.

"Just meeting their monthly bills' is more than many can manage after a layoff, Gardner said.

On Dec. 19 she helped one woman whose pay for work completed the prior two weeks was just over the maximum allowed, disqualifying her for unemployment. The client was at the end of her rope.

"She was just upset and in tears. She said, 'My employer won't pay me until next Friday, I have $24 to my name and next week is Christmas,'" Gardner recounted.

Hers and similar circumstances are piling up as the recession deepens. Health care seems to be one industry that is holding its own in the otherwise dismal jobs scenario.

"Everybody needs health care," Nelson said.

For the rest, even for those unhappy in their present job, he recommends being thankful simply to be working.

"We counsel people to just ride it out, do what you can to keep your job," he said. "Right now is not a good time to change jobs. Employers are just trying to keep it together through Christmas. They're having a tough time, just like employees."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at [email protected]