Jul. 19--EL PASO -- The end appears to be near for Alfredo Pappas. The end of his more than seven-month job search, that is.

Pappas, 35, whom the El Paso Times profiled in May as one of thousands of El Pasoans hunting for a job in tough economic times, said he's close to getting a six-month, temporary job with a defense contractor in El Paso. The job is multimedia production associate, he said.

Last week, he was waiting for results of his drug test, which Pappas expected to be the last hurdle for him to get the job.

"I had some hesitation about doing a temporary job. But I need a job," Pappas said last week while sitting at his bedroom desk in his family's small Upper Valley home. "I will try to do a great job so I can have an offer (for a permanent) job after that."

Rose Ellis, an employment center manager and employment adviser for Workforce Solutions Upper Rio Grande, this area's public employment agency, said taking a temporary job, especially if it's in a person's career field, is a good move.

The pay will be better than unemployment benefits, and "you can still search and apply for other jobs" while working at the temporary job, Ellis said. "Many companies offer a temporary job to see if you're the right fit, and then it becomes permanent."

Because turning the temp job into a permanent one is uncertain, Ellis said, "it's important to keep the (job) search going, otherwise you'll be in the same (unemployment) spot" when the temp job ends.

Pappas, who has a computer science degree from the Durango Institute of Technology in his native Durango, Mexico, lost his job Dec. 30 as a information analyst for Electronic Data Systems Corp., or EDS, a technology services giant. He received his layoff notice on Halloween, about three months after Hewlett-Packard acquired EDS and cut thousands of jobs in the two companies.

Pappas' wife, Fatima, also lost her job late last year as a computer programmer at a Juarez maquiladora, which was shut down. She isn't job-searching because the couple decided it's best for her to remain home and take care of their two daughters, ages 1 and 3.

The job market in El Paso and nationwide has worsened considerably since Pappas lost his job. The El Paso unemployment rate has grown from 7.1 percent in December 2008 to 9.6 percent in June, the latest data available from the Texas Workforce Commission.

An estimated 29,300 El Pasoans were unemployed and seeking work in June, compared with an estimated 21,500 in December 2008.

El Paso gained jobs last year despite the national recession. This year, the story is different.