As unemployment soars, “S.E. Works” responds, to help ever more job seekers

By Merry Mackinnon

The Bee, Apr 1, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

“S.E. Works” Executive Director Heidi Soderberg, and Employment Specialist Gwen Nothwang, see first-hand the evidence of how the unemployment rate in Oregon has surged. Recently-laid-off workers flock to the center at 6927 S.E. Foster Road to get help finding jobs, upgrading skills, and writing resumes.

Merry MacKinnon / THE BEE

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For years, THE BEE has told you about the Inner Southeast Portland resource for job seekers — “S.E. Works”, a nonprofit funded by regional agencies, donations, and an annual soup auction.

Their work goes on. But now, as Oregon unemployment has risen above 10%, there is a greater air of urgency about the place, and the crowds of those seeking work have grown.

Each weekday “S.E. Works” and “WorkSource Portland Southeast” on S.E. Foster Road fill up with people looking for jobs, training, and advice.

“It’s not uncommon to see every one of our 30 computers being used at any given time,” says Sellwood resident and Southeast Works Executive Director Heidi Soderberg.

So many unemployed people are coming in these days looking for help finding work that it reminds one on-site employment specialist of Oregon’s deep early- to mid-’80s recession. The difference now, notes Gwen Nothwang, is that people have been losing jobs at which they’ve been employed for over a decade.

“We're getting many people in their 40s and 50s who worked in manufacturing, and had been in jobs for a long time — ten years and more,” Nothwang says. “A union painter came in who had worked all his life, and had never had to use employment services before.”

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