ISeems like they've been closed for a year or more. Their Facebook is active, so maybe they closed for COVID for a while?
In any case, this is a vital service and a city the size of Pasadena should really have a couple offices like this. I've used the Job Center a dozen times or so for various construction-related projects over approximately the past 6 years. Some observations:
Good stuff:
* Have never gotten a person who didn't work their butt off for a full day. I'm not a back-breaker, these guys (for my types of jobs they always assign men) are serious and most (not all) have had some level of experience with construction and residential labor. I've met some who were remarkably overqualified.
* The office managers seem mostly fair and knowledgeable. They're like a taxi dispatcher, so I imagine there's some degree of just giving the job to the next person in line, but I think they do try to match your project with a person who has a compatible skill set.
* Rates seem reasonable. More below.
* They do not tether the people who participate. In other words, if you meet someone you love working with, and they you, you can exchange contacts and work directly together.
* 100% of the pay to the employee stays with the employee. The Center does not take a dime as far as I can tell.
Other observations:
* If you don't show up early some days you might have slim pickings. I've done a couple projects where I told the manager that it's some hard digging and lifting rocks, etc... and they assign a dude who has to be at least 60. I can't complain because see my comment above. But I do worry a bit and a couple times have taken it easy on the guys. But not because they were slow or complained. Overall age at the Center does seem to trend higher than the pool of labor you'll find waiting near Throop Lumber, for example.
* I also suspect that, if your job isn't what some of the guys are looking for, they'll pass, and the low fellow on the pole gets stuck with the shovel. Some of this conversation is done out loud as the dispatcher talks in Spanish to the guys in the waiting area. I don't know what politics are involved, but do sense that there are some at play.
* Almost everyone is primarily Spanish speaking that I've worked with. In the days of Google Translate, that's not a problem. And over half of the people I've worked with speak some English, several with complete fluency.
* This next one isn't my observation, but was told to me by a person I've employed a couple times in the past for similar work. That person is an African American man and he was put off by the Center because the times he tried to wait there for work it felt to him like he was being passed over. Guys who were waiting for less time got good jobs ahead of him. I can't verify that, but apparently thought it was worth sharing.
* Over the years I've used the Center, the wages seemed consistent until they didn't. I think it was around '18 when I noticed the quotes becoming odd and going a bit haywire... This was noticeable in part because I think prior to that their rates were generally too low. Like I seem to recall baseline being around $12 an hour for quite a while. I could be misremembering, but it was low, too low. And I rounded up to $15 or $20 depending on the work. But then it seemed like for a spell every time I went in they raised the rate by a couple bucks. It wasn't the hourly that was off-putting so much as the inconsistency and lack of communication as to why the rate had changed in the last seven days (again.) At one point I got kind of frustrated and began to hire the lumberyard guys. But hopefully they are at a stable rate again and communicate it better to clients -- that's the other thing, it was for a while like they were testing the waters and it just felt shady. Maybe it was just the one manager, but I felt like they were targeting the gullible guy (me.)
Conclusion:
The Job Center is a vital part of the community and deserves our support. From the POV of the client it could be better in several ways: Clearer communication of services and rates, more consistent and professional dispatchers, higher wages overall for workers, better advertising in the community, better followup on experiences with the possible goal of long-term employment for workers who might want it, more locations, more inclusive management of labor pool.
If you're reading this, you're almost certainly a prospective client, not a worker, so you're wondering if you should trust this service. The answer from my experience is an unqualified, Yes.
But also in my experience, from the stories I've heard from workers from the Center, it's the labor who is much more likely to get ripped off by the employers. The Job Center gives some structure and protection and comfort to people who have almost no one looking out for their interests. So keep that in mind as you're getting your projects done and be fair and pay well. read more
