Aug. 2--KINGWOOD -- Even if Melissa Layton does find a job, it won't help a whole lot. For her, some jobs are just a way to pay the baby sitter. "By the time you pay a baby sitter and put gas in your vehicle, I'm actually losing," she said. "Baby sitters are expensive." So expensive that after Matthews Bronze "dismissed" her in January, Layton, 30, has been a little bit ahead financially. Now she's home with her 12-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son and collects unemployment. But eventually that unemployment compensation will run out, she said. "And then you start to worry." The worried gathered at the Craig Civic Center in June for a job fair. Some stood with former co-workers chatting about the layoffs at Matthews and Allegheny Wood Products and the Whitetail mine. Some sat alone at tables in the middle of the big room filling out job applications. Inside

"I'm trying not to lose everything I've got," one of them said.

No information was available Friday for how many of those received job offers from the fair.

Preston County has suffered lately.

The failing economy and corporate decisions have cost the county more than 770 jobs -- 5.2 percent of its work force -- since April 2008, according to figures from WorkForce West Virginia. Unemployment has risen 2 percentage points since the beginning of 2009 to 8.6 percent.

By comparison, Monongalia and Marion counties are faring better. Their unemployment rates are 5.8 and 7.6 percent, respectively.

In 2007, 16.5 percent of the people in Preston County lived in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Now 18 percent do.

"It's hard," Layton said. "Every day you wonder. Bills start to pile up. You get behind. And you struggle."

Hundreds of jobs lost in Preston

Layton worked at the Kingwood division of Matthews for a year and a half. Her husband, Jeremy, still works in etching at a different division. They're told his job is safe, but Layton won't bet on it.

"What are we going to do if they shut down, if they ever do?" she wondered. "Do I ever see that happening? No, and I hope not. But the possibility's there."

Matthews International Corp. makes memorial plaques and statuary. The company's Pittsburgh division made Elvis Presley's memorial at Graceland. But sales dropped at the Kingwood plant.

Kingwood Mayor Jim Lobb tried to get Matthews' corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh to close a different plant -- one where there are places for laid off employees to find other work. He didn't convince them. They sent 117 Preston County workers home this year.