RECOVERING FROM THE STORM; EMPLOYERS GIVE BACK BY HIRING KATRINA'S EVACUEES.(Business)

Byline: Katherine Reynolds Lewis Newhouse News Service

Just as Americans are opening their checkbooks and homes to survivors of Hurricane Katrina, business owners across the country are offering jobs to some of the more than half-million people whose livelihoods were swept away.

In cities with large shelters for evacuees, job fairs organized by relief agencies make the process easier. But far-flung employers face the challenge of locating and interviewing qualified workers who have no home address to put on a resume, much less a reliable Internet or phone connection.

"How does someone 1,000 miles away actually help?" asked Tom Dixon, president of I. Auman Machine Co., a precision machine shop in Lebanon, Pa.

Dixon has four job openings at hourly wages starting around $12, with the potential for raises to $18.

"We're always looking to train and bring people on," he said.

He has contacted the Red Cross and Salvation Army, Louisiana's Labor Department, staffing agencies and politicians and posted notices on www.craigslist.org , but so far has had no takers. Positions for displaced workers are also flooding to www.katrinajobs.com,hurricanerelief.monster.com and specific industry Web sites.

Charline Spektor and her husband grew up hearing about their parents' rescue from the Holocaust by American strangers who arranged jobs and work visas. So it seemed natural to offer positions at their three BookHampton bookstores on Long Island and to encourage other merchants to follow suit.

"People's lives have been completely ripped out. They lost their homes; they lost their livelihoods; their children have been destabilized," Spektor said.

The first evacuee is soon to arrive. He'll work as a bookseller and his fiancee will be a receptionist. They'll live with their pygmy goat in a donated house.

The hiring process was a little unusual - no reference checks because of the difficulty in reaching former employers in the hurricane zone - but Spektor said she could tell from a phone interview that the candidate knew books.

"He called back three times, that was the employment test," she said.

Other employers agreed that communicating with hurricane survivors was the most difficult part of hiring them. Even evacuees with cell phones may have sporadic service, and many can't frequently check e-mail.

Companies also are encountering reluctance to commit to new lives in distant places. People may have survived the storm with nothing but their family ties intact. Many are waiting for insurance claims to come through or to return home to gather any belongings.

Mary Bates, 39, was a caterer for Messina's Restaurant in New Orleans when the hurricane hit. Her employer wants her to come back to work at a different location in the area.

But now that Bates has evacuated to Washington, D.C., with four family members and two friends, the lifelong Louisianian wants to wait and see what happens with the rest of her group.

"We're sticking it out together," she said. "My mind don't stay focused long enough to get a job."

Gason Nelson, a 36-year-old personal chef, lived his whole life in New Orleans before evacuating to Houston ahead of Katrina.

"I'm not prepared to be transplanted to a new place," he said.

"It's weird," Nelson said of the contrast with his former life assembling gourmet meals. "If you'd have told me last month I'd be on food stamps - when I'm in New Orleans, I make phone calls and people bring me food."

Since arriving in Houston, Nelson has turned down an offer to cook at a restaurant because it would have required too much time away from his wife and two daughters, who are living in a hotel. Once they get an apartment and things settle down, he said, he'll figure out whether to remain in Houston and try to rebuild his business.

"I know I'm going to bounce back," he said. "It's just a process."

Complicating the turmoil for the evacuees is that many employers want only long-term hires.

"I don't want to train someone for six months and then have them go back when it's all dried out," said Peter Cohen, owner of Asset Servicing Corp. in Long Beach, N.Y. The woman he's flying in for an interview told him she never wants to return to New Orleans.

Stuart Phillips, a recruiter with Management Recruiters in Seattle, is looking to hire civil engineers to fill permanent jobs in Seattle and Portland, Ore.

"When I saw how bad things were down in New Orleans, it was obvious that there were going to be people who were not going to be able to move back there or would not want to," Phillips said. "I didn't want people to have to get stuck in just taking a job somewhere so they'd be able to eat, when they could go somewhere nice and start a life."

At eMazzanti Technologies, a computer network consultant in Hoboken, N.J., new employees receive so much training to become certified that they must repay education costs if they quit within one year, co-owner Jennifer Shine said. She has talked to many hurricane survivors eager to move; they seem desperate for jobs.

"Some of the cover letters are just incredible," she said. "Over and over we read or heard the phrase, "I can move in 24 hours, I have nothing left here."'

Job hunters with specialized skills are advised to check with their unions, professional associations or trade groups. Many industry organizations have set up networks to provide jobs, housing and other resources.

Theresa Reyes, co-founder of Pediatric Speech Services in Kensington, Md., is working with her professional association to place speech language pathologists.

"These are professionals, so they're not showing up at the job fairs," Reyes said. "We would be interested in having them come here for a year's assignment, and the assignment could be extended."

David Esrati, chief creative officer of the Next Wave in Dayton, Ohio, has offered a job and studio space on several advertising industry Web sites.

"What you do is who you are," Esrati said, "and if you're sitting around doing something that's not what you do, it's real easy to get discouraged. Despair takes over."

Elvin Brown, 50, a carpenter from New Orleans, agreed. He evacuated to Washington, D.C., to be closer to his 13-year-old son and ex-wife in Fort Washington, Md.

"I'm not used to laying around and waiting for someone else to do for me," Brown said. "The only way I can feel like a whole person is if I get to work."

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PHOTO

Chriss Rossi/Newhouse News Service

MARY BATES,39, is a caterer who declined her New Orleans employer's offer to work at a different location so she could stick with her family and friends sheltering with her at the National Guard Armory in Washington, D.C.

Chris Knight/Newhouse News Service

TOM DIXON,president of I. Auman Machine Co., a precision machine shop in Lebanon, Pa., has four job openings, but so far has had no takers.

GRAPHIC: Livelihoods swept away. The Post-Standard. Note: For text see microfilm.