Courier

Media Credit: Chi Hong Wong Stephanie Coulter goes through a practice interview in the Job Placement Center. She is looking for work after having quit her previous job in pursuit of her higher education.

Just as the state has decided to suspend some student aid, jobs are growing scarce.

Students at PCC have been struggling to find work in the new year and it appears the struggles will continue.

On Friday, State of California Controller John Chiang announced that the state will suspend tax refunds, welfare checks and student grants if no budget is passed by Feb. 1.

"If I didn't have financial aid, I wouldn't be coming to school," said Christian Munquia, 18, undecided, who has had no luck in finding employment in the last couple of months.

Munquia has applied to many of the major retailers and has only been asked to come in once for an interview, at which he was turned away.

"[Macy's] called me in and said 'you're out'," he said.

Michael Marmarian, 18, undecided, has had a similar experience. He and his friends have also had no luck finding work since the end of the fall semester.

"Out of maybe seven of our friends, no one has gotten a job yet, so that just proves the point that there's not really any jobs out there," said Marmarian, who feels financial aid isn't enough and that his money may run out before the year ends.

"I just think it's the economy," said Hovsep Maargani, 18, undecided. "Everyone's getting laid off. People that have jobs are losing jobs. It's gonna be harder now to get a job."

That statement has hit close to home for Ismael Tavira, 18, dentistry, whose father and uncle had to shut down a family-owned convenience store when the economy took a sudden turn for the worse.

Tavira himself is an employee at a Target in Pasadena, but has not seen a paycheck for quite a while.

"I got no hours cause they don't have any hours available," he said. "They have too many workers and they don't wanna lay anybody off."

Stephanie Coulter, 30, multimedia telecommunications, has begun to look for work after quitting a few years ago to pursue her Associate of Arts degree.

"I'm looking for full-time work and something that is pertaining to my major," she said.

With Circuit City recently announcing it is closing up shop, sending an estimated 34,000 people to the unemployment lines, and other major retailers like KB Toys also filing for bankruptcy, more people are left searching for the same jobs within their local communities.

"It's the recession," said Munquia. "It's hard for [inexperienced] young adults to find a job when there aren't many jobs available."

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