LAKE CITY -- Thirty people will lose their jobs in the next few months as four One Stop Job Centers in the Pee Dee close due to state budget cuts and the loss of federal stimulus funds.
The closings will also impact thousands of unemployed people who depend on the centers to help them find jobs.
Wednesday, we visited the One Stop Center in Lake City. It was bustling with people looking for work. Ralston Barfield is the director of the center. He's one of 30 people who will soon be in need of the services he currently provides to others.
"I had a lady call me yesterday, and I told her the circumstances, the Lake City One Stop was closing, and I heard her get to the point of tears on the telephone," he told us.
Joette Dukes works for the Pee Dee Workforce Investment Board. "We wrestled with it. We looked at different ways we could do things, and the money just wasn't there," she said.
The Pee Dee Workforce Investment Board gets federal money through the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce and uses it to fund the One Stop Centers.
This year the W.I.B. got a 58 percent cut in its dislocated worker funds and a 31 percent cut in funds for the unemployed. Add to that the loss of stimulus money, and officials say they had no choice but to close the centers in Dillon, Cheraw, Lake City and Chesterfield.
It's a move that saves $1.3 million.
"It's just a difficult time for everybody," Dukes said.
It's going to be even more difficult now for the unemployed who depend on the One Stop Centers for job assistance. State unemployment office employees are often tied up handling claims, so the One Stop workers offer more one-on-one attention.
"We provide workshops. We can provide more assessment of their skills and aptitude," Dukes said.
Job seekers will now have to travel to one stop centers in Bennettsville, Florence, Hartsville and Marion which will remain open.
But many of those job seekers simply can't afford to travel to other centers.
The W.I.B. is trying to find places to house the job resource labs so job seekers can still use the computers. There just won't be any staff to help.
