Steven Sawyer, 40, has been laid off three times since 2009, but the past 14 months have been his longest period of unemployment.
Sawyer, who lives in Ventura with his wife and 9- and 10-year-old daughters, said he remained hopeful a job was just around the corner, but losing his weekly $370 unemployment check just after Christmas has shifted his perspective.
Nearly 4,700 Ventura County residents lost their federal unemployment benefits Dec. 28 after Congress did not extend the program for 1.3 million long-term unemployed workers.
"I knew it wasn't going to last forever. My biggest gripe I have is it really came with very little notice," Sawyer said. "I was shocked. I'm frustrated with the government, obviously because they can't seem to agree on anything."
Several bills that would continue the federal extension benefits have been introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, but Congress has yet to act. Discussions to reinstate the long-term aid are not expected to resume until congressional representatives return Jan. 27 from a weeklong recess.
About 222,000 unemployed Californians were among those in the same position after the federally funded extended benefits expired, according to the California Employment Development Department. An additional 17,000 unemployed workers have exhausted their state unemployment benefits since the end of 2013 and would have qualified for a federal extension, according to the agency.
The state provides unemployment benefits to California residents for up to 26 weeks, but the economic slowdown prompted the federal government to provide tiers of continued assistance to those who remained without a job for more than six months.
The extended federal aid that Congress did not renew would have provided unemployed workers with an additional 37 to 63 weeks of benefits, depending on how recently the unemployment claim was filed.
Sawyer said his family had managed to cover the mortgage, food and utilities with his wife's salary and his unemployment check, but they also depleted their savings and retirement funds in the process.
"It's the long-term ramifications for us that we're concerned about," said Sawyer, including paying for his children to go to college and the length of time the couple will have to remain in the workforce.
Even by spending 15 to 20 hours per week applying for jobs, expanding his search geographically and working on earning his bachelor's degree in business, Sawyer said the number of job interviews he lands has declined drastically as the time he has been unemployed drags on.
"I'm still trying, but I don't know," he said. "I just don't know how successful I'm going to be."
Ventura County's unemployment rate is at 7.2 percent — a group of 31,700 people, according to November 2013 data released at the end of December. The county unemployment rate reached 11.3 percent in August 2010.
Vivian Pettit, a program manager overseeing the county's performance with the Workforce Investment Act, said she has seen a lot of people who lost their federal benefits come to the county's job and career centers.
"They basically needed a safety net," she said. "That's the basis of unemployment — to give people a safety net so they can continue to pay their bills while they look for work."
The job centers — in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Ventura, Santa Paula and Oxnard — do not house a division of the Employment Development Department, but Pettit said they are "close cousins" and help connect people with state and local services.
"The majority of people who are looking for work in this area are actually what you would call middle-aged, in their 40s, 50s, 60s," she said. "Seniors over 65 have also been affected by the stock market crash. They had their nest egg, but that's kind of been obliterated. They are now looking for work. Maybe they're on Social Security, but they need some supplementary income."
The job centers hold training programs and offer workshops in English and Spanish that help people learn how to search for jobs, create a résumé and cover letter, and gain interview skills.
"You have a lot of people who were long-term employed. ... They don't know how to look for work," she said. "Job searches 25, 30 years ago — it was different. You could do it by word-of-mouth. Now you have to do everything electronic."
Steven Goodmanson, 55, spent three days this week at the West Oxnard Job and Career Center, where he met with his counselor to complete self-assessments, attended workshops to improve his résumé and cover letter, and brushed up on interview skills.
Goodmanson, of Santa Paula, had been working as a mechanical inspector for Tyco Electronics Connectivity, now TE Connectivity, for more than 30 years in Carpinteria until the company decided to relocate out of state and abroad.
The marine, aerospace and defense manufacturer gave Goodmanson a one-year notice of his November 2013 exit date. Goodmanson said he stayed until the end of his employment to receive his severance package. He is living off that and state unemployment.
Goodmanson said he plans to retrain in a different industry, such as accounting or medicine.
"I just feel that manufacturing — a lot of companies are moving out of state," he said. "But medical, business — there's a real strong workforce there. ... It's kind of scary in a way. It's all for the good. I'm excited."
Antonio Amezcua, 60, was at the same resume-writing workshop Thursday in Oxnard, a city in which he's lived for more than 35 years.
Amezcua has been working at a warehouse distribution center through a temporary employment agency for the past four years, but he consistently gets laid off at the end of every December and has to live off unemployment benefits until he is rehired in April or May.
This year is no different for Amezcua and his wife, who is not working.
"It affects me. We have to watch out with our bank account," he said. "We're tight for at least the three months that I'm laid off, while I'm looking for a second job or something more steady."
Before the recession, Amezcua said, he had never been laid off. He worked for several different companies, but always had a job.
Now he is working on completing a paid vocational training program to help pay the bills and lead to a steady job.
"Like Cesar Chavez said, ‘Sí, se puede,' " Amezcua said, meaning "Yes, we can," in Spanish.