By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY

When Todd Wyman lost his job making parts for trucks and SUVs in June 2008, he started on a path trod by millions of unemployed workers in this recession: He retrained to do something else.

After consulting with the Montgomery County job center in Dayton, Ohio, the 28-year-old decided that the something else would be welding. Industry officials bemoan a shortage of skilled trainees to replace the 10,000 or so older workers retiring each year.

But since graduating from a 10-month, government-subsidized welding program in early December, Wyman has come up empty in the search for his first gig. Wyman and job-center officials say he’s competing against experienced welders in a still-wounded southwestern Ohio economy.

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