COLUMBUS, Ohio — The economy has meant that many women who thought they would be enjoying retirement are once again job hunting - so many of them that a national organization has asked a local one to intervene, 10TV's Andrea Cambern reported.

After two years of retirement, Janet Veness is back on the job.

"I was very excited about retiring and I thought this was going to be it. I was going to be traveling and doing a lot of things, visiting the grandchildren," Vaness said.

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Instead, Vaness is working part-time at Employment for Seniors.

"Right after I retired, the economy started going down. And it just continued to go down and eventually I realized that I was going to need to go back," Veness said.

For others, they were not yet planning to retire, but were laid off, Cambern reported.

"I was with a company for 20 years and they downsized," said Terry Gist.

There are so many people in similar situations that the American Association of Retired People asked the New Directions Career Center to teach classes to prepare these people to rejoin the workforce.

Teacher Amanda Fox said she knows it is especially tough for seniors.

"There's a lot more job seekers out there than there are jobs and so the competition is greater," Fox said.

But many older workers - which include a bigger percentage of women - lack basic computer skills.

That can become a problem when both job postings and applications are online.

"I got laid off in February after 11 years, and I didn't have any computer skills," said student Arminta Holland.

Fox is teaching those skills, along with ways to market yourself.

"If you don't even have the basic computer skills to find the jobs and apply, it cuts you out from even getting your hat in the ring," Fox said.

The classes are held at Franklin University and the first dozen spots are free, funded by the AARP Foundation.

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New Directions Career Training

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