Jerome Lewis is hoping 2010 will be the year he makes employment contact.

“In the 1970s, there was such a need for workers that there’d be a line outside the employment office and all you had to do was fill out an application and you got the job,” said the 56-year-old Kenosha resident. “But now you can’t do that.”

Lewis has been living on his Chrysler buyout money since April, when he ended 13 years as a maintenance electrician at the local engine plant. He had been laid off since October 2008 and has 10 years before he can collect his pension.

“My wife has been pushing me to look for a job,” he said after attending a two-hour resume-writing class at the Kenosha County Job Center. “The money is running out.”

Fast growth jobs?

Lewis wants to continue using his skills, but the job of maintenance electrician doesn’t have much growth potential, according to the state Department of Workforce Development.

The agency is forecasting data communications as the fastest-growing occupation in Kenosha, Racine and Walworth counties through 2016. Estimates are that field is expected to grow 47 percent, or 80 positions, to 250, by 2016.

Just behind it is home health aides, up 390 positions, or 42 percent; personal and home care aides, growing 460 jobs, or 40 percent; medical assistants, up 140, or 35 percent, and computer software engineers and applications, adding 70 positions, or 33 percent.

The fastest-growing isn’t necessarily the most plentiful, however.

The DWD predicted food preparation and related occupations could have an annual average of 790 positions open each year through 2016. Next in line are office and administrative support, with 640 job openings per year; sales, 600 jobs; production, 550, and transportation and material moving, 350.

Healthy job market?

Health care, typically with 25 percent to 30 percent of area job postings, probably is where the most hiring activity will be next year, said John Milisauskas, Kenosha County Job Center manager.

But getting there doesn’t happen overnight, he warned; radiology technician jobs require two years of education and training, for example. Some related posts, such as medical receptionist, have shorter preparations.

Nursing graduates from Gateway Technical College had the highest percentage of students finding jobs in their field, according to a 2008 survey, the most recent available. Counselor Sheri Eisch said the school had 124 nursing graduates then, the largest of its programs.

Of 97 nursing graduates who responded to the survey, 95 were working in their field, she said.

In other fields, accounting had 53 Gateway graduates in 2008, with 20 of 44 responding that they were working in that occupation, while criminal justice, involving police work, had 50 graduates, of which 22 of 37 respondents were working in that field.

Limited feasting?

There are expectations of hiring at Gordon Food Service and Uline’s distribution centers next year, noted Todd Battle, Kenosha Area Business Alliance president.

He wrote in an e-mail to the News that area business leaders and employers have suggested a “fairly stable” hiring outlook overall.

However, there is still some hesitancy about adding employees.

“I would not expect hiring to be robust,” Battle wrote. “Many businesses/employers are reluctant to add personnel even as they anticipate conditions improving, as there is tremendous uncertainty in the marketplace and questions regarding sustainability of an economic recovery.”

Monday: More unemployed people are considering starting their own businesses. A look at the preparation needed — and the risk involved.