In this economy, one suburban hot spot drawing a crowd

On his 48th birthday Wednesday, this Arlington Heights man named Terry heads right for the place that has become a hot spot of the suburbs.

The parking lot is filled with cars - from a 20th-century Chevy Malibu and an older Honda Accord to a new Lexus RX Hybrid SUV and a BMW.

"I used to be in and out in about 15 minutes," Terry says. "There's a much longer wait time now."

Well, there's a lot more customers these days.

"We've been getting 600 phone calls a day," says Daniel Yokas, who runs the joint.

Unemployment is booming - as evidenced by the steady stream of jobless people coming Wednesday morning to the Illinois workNet Center (commonly referred to as the "unemployment office") in Arlington Heights.

"That stigma - 'I don't want my wife to know I lost my job. I don't want my kids to know' - that's gone," says Yokas, the field office supervisor for the Illinois Department of Employment Security. "People rush in here."

They want their unemployment benefits and those checks. But the conglomeration of state and private officials inside this office building want them to leave with more than money.

"While most people think of us as the unemployment office, that's only a small part of what we do," Yokas says. "We're actually a re-employment and training service."

A computer class, offered at no charge, is filling up in one room. Another classroom is packed with 50 unemployed people learning how the Workforce Investment Act can help them get grants that will pay for training them in new careers as computer workers, truck drivers or other jobs. The office is loaded with government, educational, community and church programs - all with alphabetical acronyms that become a second language for the people who use them.

A dozen people searching for jobs check e-mails, print letters and résumés, and make phone calls free from the office workstations.

"They come in like they are going to work," Yokas says. He notes that finding a new job is work, and some people show up daily for months. Just posting a résumé on a job-search Internet site isn't enough.

"Like anything else, you've got to diversify your search," Yokas says. "You've got to knock on doors and pick up newspapers. This is where you do the hard work of looking for a job."

The national unemployment rate nationwide in August was 6.1 percent. With a statewide unemployment rate of 7.3 percent, Illinois ranks 43rd among the 50 states, closer to Michigan's 8.9 percent than South Dakota's 3.3 percent. Unemployment rates among larger suburbs range from Carpentersville's 8.4 percent to the 5.2 percent reported by Arlington Heights and Wheaton.

Among counties, Cook has an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent, Lake 7.1, Kane 6.9, McHenry 6.3, and DuPage 5.8 - all of them with higher rates than a few months ago, and substantially higher than last year's rates.

Terry, who asks that his last name not be printed, uses the Illinois Skills Match - an automated system that (like an online dating service) matches employees with employers. A union carpenter, Terry has had short stretches in other years when he needed to draw unemployment between jobs.

"This year is definitely the slowest as far as weeks I've worked," Terry says. He sold one of his two condos and rents the other one while he rents an apartment, and he can't afford to be picky about jobs that come his way.

"You have to be more open to doing the work you don't want to do," Terry says.

"Most people looking for work have been able to find work," says Yokas. But often those new jobs don't offer the same pay, perks, hours or satisfaction as the old jobs did, he adds.

While presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have made the economy a priority in their campaigns, Terry says he's still not sure how he's voting.

"It's more than the presidency," Terry says. "I'm not real optimistic about the economy."

To find out more about the services available at the state offices, visit www.ides.state.il.us. Or visit www.illinoisworknet.com.

"Most people will find themselves in between jobs four or five times in their lifetime now," Yokas says. "We have seen an increase in all of our programs."