SAN ANTONIO – Businesses that depend on federal money are now getting daily updates to find out what sequestration cuts will mean for you.
Alamo Workforce Solutions offers free resources to help people find jobs, and 85% of its funding comes from the federal government.
Many of those resources can be found inside career centers all over the area. Everyone inside has a story about losing a job, and it usually begins the same way.
"It just came out of the blue and the reality set in that it was the end,” Sylvia Garcia says.
So to find her next career, she’s taking advantage of classes and job interviews offered at the career center.
"They helped me with learning how to do the interviews, the resume – just selling ourselves better,” Garcia says.
Alamo Workforce places people like Garcia in all types of industries, from hospitals and schools to the oil fields of the Eagle Ford Shale.
So with sequestration looming, Eva Esquivel with Alamo Workforce says it’s important to make sure the unemployed are protected.
"We're going to have to look at the dollars that we have available and the need that we have in the community and then do our best to serve that need,” she says.
Esquivel says she’s received only estimates so far, including more than $1 million potentially cut from career centers and more than $1.5 million slashed from the popular child care program.
But the good news here, she says, is Alamo Workforce had some time to plan ahead.
"Now, because we've known about sequestration for quite awhile, we've had opportunities to basically save money to avoid any potential impact on our current customer base,” Esquivel says.
So people like Garcia will still have the resources they need to pound the pavement.
"It's really essential to someone learning how to look for the job,” she says.
The negative impact, though: wait lists for that child care program could get even longer, and having less money will limit Alamo Workforce’s ability to expand its programs for awhile.
