You're not alone at this place

When Danica Roberts was laid off in January, her bosses apologized.

People apologized to Roberts again Wednesday when she walked into the Redmond office of WorkSource Seattle-King County and couldn't find a seat.

"The classes are all full, the chairs are taken," Roberts said as we stood outside the employment center. "We're not climbing over each other for the one job ticket, but still."

For 12 years, Roberts, 47, planned events for a local tech company. For weeks after losing her job, she went through "unemployment defeat and sadness."

On Wednesday, she'd had enough. She got up, got dressed, got coffee and headed into WorkSource. There, clients apply for unemployment benefits over the phone (boxes of tissues sit at each station), search for jobs, take classes, update résumés — and see they are not alone.

"It's a roller coaster," Roberts said of this, her first visit. "I go from, 'Oh! There are services!' to 'But oh ... I'm standing in line.' "

Indeed, at this time last year, this WorkSource location had about 150 walk-ins every day. That number has more than doubled to about 400 a day, according to spokeswoman Margret Graham.

Not only are the job seekers more diverse, she said, there's a marked increase in the number of first-time unemployment claimants and older workers.

All while job listings are down, and services are "more sparse here than in other parts of the county," Graham said.

Inside the offices — a stone's throw from über-employer and millionaire-maker Microsoft — people sat at computers, looking for jobs, working on résumés.

Along one wall, a line formed for the 18 available tickets for the Interviewing Techniques class. It didn't start for two hours.

I glanced at the list of employers who would be there to conduct interviews. A security company was looking for officers to work split and graveyard shifts for $10 to $12.50 an hour.

And there were openings for something called "electromechanical assemblers." You have to be able to read blueprints and schematics and have one to two years of electromechanical-assembly experience. Anyone?

Joel Kanter, 58, of Kirkland, is a former program manager who had been trying to invest in real estate before that plan went south. He hasn't been in an office like WorkSource since the 1980s — but he's been here three times in the past few weeks.

"You have to get the lay of the land and figure it out," he said. "It's important to connect with the specialists here. But there are some people here who are really stressed out."

Is he?

"Sometimes," he said, then tapped the notebook where I had written down his age. "That's the killer for me. That's my biggest worry.

"But I'm not a poor-me person," he said. "There are some other things out there."

Roberts' biggest worry is paying her COBRA health benefits. She's relieved that President Obama's stimulus package will cover most of that cost.

"That's what we can't afford, that's what is going to take our houses away from us," she said.

Meanwhile, she is looking forward to her WorkSource asset test, which will help her focus on her strengths. And she's thankful that her unemployment benefits cover her bills.

"I'm doing good," she said. "I'm enthused. I will find something. I always have."

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She skipped the nearby Target.