Here's an economic indicator you won't hear about on CNBC: Call it the Employment Office Parking Lot Index.

''If I happen to be late for work, I cannot park,'' said Carl Alexis, director of the West Miami-Dade employment office on Southwest 97th Avenue. With the number of South Florida jobless up 53 percent in the past 12 months, to 183,000, employment offices -- called ''career centers'' -- are one of the few places where business is booming.

Broward's employment agency had 25,085 job-seekers perform 87,986 database searches during the first half of this year. That's more than double the number of users and nearly triple the number of searches in the first half of 2007. Miami-Dade's agency says the total number of clients served at its centers was up 50 percent for the first half of the year.

But the pickings are slim. The number of ''job orders'' -- requests from employers to the state for help filling a job -- is falling. Broward now has about 450 on file, down from more than 700 in August.

As the economy gets worse, more high-skill workers are turning up on the agencies' doorsteps, said Kelly Allen, a vice president of Broward's taxpayer-funded job agency, WorkForce One. Job offices in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties are run by a different agency, South Florida Workforce.

Allen said many of the job-seekers these days seem to come from fields that saw rapid job growth during the housing boom such as real estate and the finance and mortgage industries.

Some show up mistakenly thinking they can get help with their unemployment claims. But those are handled by another agency -- the state's Agency for Workforce Innovation -- and mostly processed online or over the phone.

Dagoberto Paz, 45, was visiting the West Miami-Dade center on a recent Monday to search for work as a financial analyst. He has a master's degree in business administration and 10 years of experience as a financial analyst for companies that include US Airways and Johnson & Johnson, but he was laid off in August.

''Right now it's hard for everyone,'' Paz said as he used a career center computer to aid in his job search.

The employment agencies have more than a dozen offices throughout Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, where visitors can search for jobs, polish their résumés, take a class on interviewing, or sign up for job-training programs.

The training programs focus on helping people with skills that are no longer in demand change careers to areas where job opportunities are growing.

Alfonso J. Urcuyo, an out-of-work electronics technician from Hollywood, is receiving retraining aid for certification in computer repair, a field with more job opportunities. The government is paying for a five-month course for him to learn the new trade.

''I've noticed that right now electronics is not so hot, and it seems like it's going down instead of going up,'' said Urcuyo, who has an associate's degree and 30 years of experience testing, repairing and building electronic devices.

He visits the Hollywood job office almost every weekday to search for jobs, send out more résumés and follow up with potential employers.

''Trying to find a job is a full-time job,'' he said.

Job searches can also be performed from your computer at home or at the nearest public library. The searches will turn up openings in the state's database of job orders as well as jobs advertised on other websites, such as CareerBuilder.com, which is partly owned by The Miami Herald's parent firm, McClatchy.

The training programs offer reimbursement for tuition, books and other expenses and are not necessarily restricted to people with low incomes. Participants can receive up to $6,000 in Broward or $10,000 in Miami-Dade, although actual amounts are often less because of limited funding.

In some cases, you don't need to be unemployed: The retraining program will pay for classes for workers to upgrade their skills to qualify for a promotion at their current job, with the employer's support. Those programs must be set up through the employer.

On a recent Monday, Alanna Landrian was sitting in a class at the West Miami-Dade center with her boyfriend, Daniel, and 15-month-old son Daniel.

Both adults were unemployed restaurant workers, and they're finding the job search difficult. ''It's hard because you go someplace for an interview and there are a hundred other people waiting to see the same person,'' Landrian said.

The good news, however, is that the agency helped the couple land interviews for jobs at a sports grill at Miami International Airport.

She starts as a waitress in two weeks. He is trying to land a job as a cook.

She researched the background of the company, and was glad to see that it was an established firm. A lot of restaurants have been going under lately, and Daniel recently worked a whole month without pay when his employer suddenly folded.

Under the circumstances, a job at the airport looks great.

''It's not going anywhere,'' Landrian said.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@