SANTA MARIA - "Right now I'm looking for anything in the tech field", says Peter Pabon who's been looking for a full-time job for more than two years."
"I'm 53", Pabon says, "at my age its tougher now because the younger kids will take just about anything at any price."
A prominent Central Coast economist says the national unemployment data showing the jobless rate at its lowest level in more than four years is not what's happening here on the Central Coast.
"We're seeing a recovery in employment", says Mark Schniepp of the California Economic Forecast, "however that recovery is not quite as robust as we're seeing elsewhere in the state, particularly like in the Bay Area."
"There are a lot of temporary jobs however, administrative jobs, things like that", Schniepp says, "not quite as many total jobs as we are seeing elsewhere in the state."
"I'm up against guys that have their Master's degrees and Phd's", says Peter Pabon about the quality of the labor market he's competing in.
Pabon says he knows its all about staying positive and says he finds inspiration in in the popular animated film Finding Nemo.
"When Dory said when she is going into the "abyss", just keep swimming", Pabon says, "because that's all I'm doing is just keep swimming, keep focusing on what I need to do, and I'm doing everything I can to find that job in this area."
Of great concern to Pabon and others looking for work now on the Central Coast is the addition of thousands of federal workers who could be joining the jobless ranks in the coming weeks with ongoing budget cuts under "sequestration".
At this time of year most of the available jobs on the Central Coast are in agriculture with many of those jobs paying minimum wage.
Although there is an upswing in hiring in construction and energy production.
