More People Training To Become Security Guards But Jobs Not Guaranteed

PALM DESERT – There are more students training to be security guards at the Coachella Valley Security Academy. But that doesn’t mean they’re getting jobs.

Bower Security guard Alex Reyes knows.

“There’s a lot of times where there could be a lot of companies accepting applications, but there’s really no jobs, so it’s like I said, ‘you win them and lose them.'”

In these tough times, some businesses will cancel their security contract while other businesses will add security.While most jobs are hard to come by, there’s always a need for security, especially here.

There’s still hundreds of gated communities around the Coachella Valley. That means hundreds of extra jobs for security guard companies, but tough times are forcing some gated communities to rearrange their security contracts.

“They may cut the hours back a little bit so that they still have personnel out there protecting and watching their assets,” Johnnie Woods with the Coachella Valley Security Academy said.”They may cut back to maybe one person or maybe cut back to a patrol.”

Sometimes the changes are seasonal.

“During a season, they could increase the coverage and as soon as the season ends they could drop to one person at the gate and one of those officers into patrol,” Woods points out.

There’s no telling how things will change, or if they’ll change when the economy improves. So, in the meantime, job hopefuls are guarding optimism about finding work.

“Law enforcement can’t do it all,” Reyes says. “So security steps in and, where possible,picks up the slack.”

For more information on getting a security guard license, visit the state Bureau of Security and Investigative Services at http://www.bsis.ca.gov/.