COURT HOUSE — Ashley Doenlen, 24 and a lifelong resident of this county, graduated Atlantic Cape Community College in May 2005 with a degree in Culinary Arts.

She told this newspaper that she has worked in the food industry, since she was 14-years-old at a bakery in Cape May and has the experience and the education to make a kitchen thrive.

Instead of continuing her career in food, Doenlen is unemployed.

She said she has spent the last four years since earning her degree growing more and more frustrated at the lack of opportunity for professional positions in this county.

“I got my first entry-level culinary job right out of college,” Doenlen said. “And from there I was able to move on to another restaurant that I could succeed in. That next restaurant didn’t last too long.”

Doenlen said she has been employed in numerous seasonal restaurants and had to suffer through a winter of uncertainty. Other seasonal restaurants, she said, didn’t seem serious about food and outfitted their kitchens with residential kitchen equipment, instead of industrial models. And she said she saw quite a few old employers have to close their restaurant doors after a bad summer.

The few full-time positions, Doenlen notes, are rare. But that doesn’t mean she has given up the search and has sent out eight applications this winter to employers advertising year-round positions.

The response, she said, has been less than encouraging.

“Sometimes places won’t even return a phone call,” she said.

Some employers have turned her down because of her lack of recent experience, but many employers have turned her down because she’s too experienced.

“They don’t want to pay someone who has a degree and who has been in kitchen’s be-fore,” she said. “They’d rather pay someone bottom of the barrel wages.”

Doenlen said she has gone through a lot of adversity as a female chef and isn’t ready to give up the search for a professional year-round position. She said she would like to see more local resources designed to help professionals find suitable employers, like job fairs.

Cape May County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Vicki Clark told the Herald that she did not recall a time when the chamber hosted a job fair.

“I haven’t had the members approach me and tell me there was a need,” she said. “We’re a member organization and if our members wanted it, we would try to make it happen.”

ACCC officials said they have helped with careers planning by holding job fairs at its three campuses each spring. The college is in the process of scheduling a spring job fair at the Cape May County Campus, and event which current students and graduates are welcome to attend.

In addition, school officials said, there are resources for different careers, information on articulation agreements with four-year schools, and job listings posted by local businesses. Alumni can access all of these services, or contact ACCC’s counselors in the Career and Academic Planning Center for individual assistance. The counselors periodically run work-shops on resume writing, interview skills, and other topics helpful for job seekers.

Cape May County Technical School told the Herald that on April 30 they are hosting a job fair from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. that is open to the public and the school high school and post secondary students.

Despite job assistance at the college and technical school, Doenlen’s sentiments are being felt throughout the county, especially from young professionals, as the job market continues to look bleak.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor the economy has shed 4.4 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, with almost half of those losses occurring in the last three months alone. And unemployment is lasting much longer. As of last month, 2.9 million people were unemployed more than six months, up from just 1.3 million at the start of the recession.

As of a Friday March 6 report, the department found that hiring last month in goods-producing industries fell by 276,000. Within this group, manufacturing firms cut 168,000 jobs bringing the total since the recession began to 1.3 million.

Construction employment was down 104,000 last month. The unemployment rate in that sector is now 21.4 percent, almost double where it was this time last year. Service-sector employment tumbled 375,000. Business and professional services companies shed 180,000 jobs and Retail trade cut almost 40,000 jobs, while leisure and hospitality businesses shed 33,000 positions. Temporary employment fell by almost 80,000.

But even if the economy picks up students at ACCC’s Cape May County Campus, many who are set to graduate in May, realize they’ll to leave this county if they have any chance of finding suitable jobs.

“The current business community in Cape May County isn’t made to support educated, professional people and it was like that before any recession,” said student Mike Lewis. “The choice is to move on to a four-year school or leave the county in search of communi-ties that do have type of businesses we are looking for.”

“It’s a shame that we’re basically forced to leave Cape May County if we want to better ourselves,” added another student on her way to mid-day classes. “Quite a few of us have the drive and the ideas and could do a lot of good here.”