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Kristi Hance needs a full-time job.

Nearly nine months after the boardwalk casino where she worked as a poker dealer closed its doors, she still doesn't have one. Hance said she works during tournaments at another casino in Atlantic City, but those competitions are only held five times a year.

"I need something that's more steady," she said. "Right now, I don't even know what I am. I'm just temporary-ish."

After a year in which four of Atlantic City's 12 casinos shuttered, eliminating roughly 8,000 jobs in a region with double-digit unemployment rates, Hance said she sees no future for herself in the gaming industry. She said she hopes to move into a new career, possibly in the medical field, but for now she's fighting to cover her expenses.

"It's a struggle every day because bills are going up and now we all lost our jobs. I mean there's thousands of us, there's not thousands of jobs here in the city," the former Showboat employee said. "Now, at 49 years old, I have to go start all over again and learn something new."

"We're all just scrambling to get something," she said.

Though some of the people who lost their jobs last year found jobs out of state or in one of the remaining Atlantic City casinos, others like Hance remain without full-time work. Their savings are dwindling. Their unemployment benefits are exhausted. Their futures are unsettled in a state where the long-term jobless rate is among the highest in the nation.

A group of those workers, including Hance, gathered in a classroom at Atlantic Cape Community College in Atlantic City last week, looking for a way to move forward with the help of a state-run program funded with a $29 million National Emergency Grant from the federal labor department. The program, which launched in March, provides workers impacted by the casino closings with services to help find a job or train for a new career.

Janice DeCicco Fipp, the director of the National Emergency Grant at Atlantic Cape Community College, led the morning session, during which she provided tips on building resumes, writing cover letters and recasting past experience in a way that would attract potential employers.

"The name of the game and the major goal is full-time employment," she said. "You need that full-time job."

Kerri Gatling, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development, said up to 4,000 displaced workers may be helped through the grant that is "designed to prepare individuals with the skills needed by employers in the region." As of last Wednesday, Gatling said, nearly 900 people have attended orientation and eligibility sessions for the Atlantic City Reemployment initiative.

Of those people, she said, 276 have joined the training program and 85 entered english language or adult basic education classes. Gatling could not immediately provide the number of people who have found full-time jobs.

Barry Avila, 61, of Hammonton, said he worked for casinos in Atlantic City for more than 30 years, most recently as a stage technician for Revel Casino Hotel.

Avila, who attended the orientation session last week, said he's been looking for jobs since he was laid off, but he described the process as "terrible, especially in my area of expertise."

With his unemployment benefits tapped out, Avila said he's living off his savings for now.

Avila said he is "getting by right now but I don't know how long that's going to last. Maybe another month or two, tops. If I don't find something, I don't know what's going to happen."

Nearly 4,000 people initially filed for unemployment benefits from just the three casinos that closed in August and September: Showboat, Revel and Trump Plaza. The Atlantic Club closed in January 2014.

Data from the state Labor Department show roughly 600 people were still claiming unemployment benefits from those three properties earlier this month but that was expected to end for roughly half of those people in May.

At the Community Food Bank of New Jersey's southern branch, director Evelyn Benton said "we saw an immediate rise in the need for emergency food assistance in September and then it's been sort of gradually growing since."

Initially, Benton said many of the former casino workers made too much money to qualify for government food assistance so the agency solicited money to help purchase food for those individuals.

"Now that they are losing unemployment benefits," she said, "they are becoming full-fledged clients."

Kelly Johnson of Atlantic City said she was a "day one employee" of Trump Plaza and worked for 30 years in the facilities department as a groundskeeper. She lost her job with the casino when it closed in September.

Johnson said she's been on interviews that her union helped arrange but "with so many others that have been laid off. It's just rough." She said her unemployment benefits ended this month.

Though Johnson said she was conservative with her money and started saving more when she found out the casino was planning to close, the uncertainty about when she may again find work is prompting her to look for help in ways she never thought she would need.

"I've never been on welfare in my life. I've always worked two jobs. But it's rough," she said. "So I will be seeking any way to get more money or food or something to sustain me. I don't know how long this is going to last. I don't know what is going to happen."

Johnson said she hoped to find employment again in groundskeeping or maintenance work but said "I will take any job that is a decent paying job that I can survive on."

She said she wants that new job to be near Atlantic City, the town where she was born and raised and still lives today.

"I got sand in my shoes. I don't want to leave. I love Atlantic City," she said. "I love my city and I have hope. I have hope. I still want it to be 'Do AC' not 'Done AC.'"

Erin O'Neill may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Follow her on Twitter @LedgerErin. Find NJ.com on Facebook.