By News Channel 3
newsline3@kesq.com

COACHELLA - Michael Burns hopes his visit to the mobile Workforce Development Center, parked outside Coachella City Hall, pays off.

Burns has been looking for work for six months already.

"Basically, I'm willing to do anything for work," said Burns, 20.  "I need the money.  I have a truck that needs fuel in it."

Usually residents travel to the center's headquarters in Indio to look for employment.  But once in awhile, the center takes a so-called field trip to neighboring communities.

According to Coachella city officials, the town's unemployment rate is at 20%.

The mobile center is not to be confused with a job fair.  The unit has ten computers inside, each with internet access to job banks.  Counselors also help residents apply for jobs online.

"When we had the crop freeze (in 2007), we took the mobile unit out on the road in Mecca and Oasis to help migrant works appy for unemployment," says Wendy Frederick, manager of the center.

The mobile unit first was used six years ago.  Since then, it has assisted not only Riverside County residents, buyt also residents nationwide.  The unit traveled to the South a couple of years ago to help victims of Hurricane Katrina get back on their feet.

Michael Burns, a professional welder and machinist, thinks this mobile unit is a great idea, especially if it saves him time and gas from h aving to travel to the center's Indio headquarters.

Every Thursday the mobile unit is in Banning at the Department of Social Services.  But, if Coachella's jobless rate continues to rise, the unit may have to make more than one visit to the East Valley.