Resources available for the unemployed

Unemployment rates have increased in June according to the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity.

Rates are 19.1 percent in Yuma and 18 percent in Imperial County according to AOEO.

The spike is a trend that Goodwill Career Center in Yuma said is not unusual for this time of year.

“Because of the season that it is, the agriculture workers… that do not follow the season over to California are not currently employed as well as many the school districts that are currently not having classes during the summer time. Many of the school officials are actually out of work for the summer and so we offer assistance to all of those job seekers up there,” said Joel De La Vera, Goodwill Career Center.

The Goodwill Career is one of many resources that help job seekers secure positions in the area.

“Helping job seekers that come in to utilize all of our services again at no cost, including job preparation, work readiness workshops, interview skills workshops, resumes, career creation all through our online platform,” said De La Vera.

The career center holds events regularly and has secured thousands with jobs.

“Just out of this career center in Yuma over 15,000 job seekers, of which over 11,000 were new to our services and of those 11,000 about 4,500 approximately have found positions,” said De La Vera.