KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- The fear factor runs strong when every day seems to bring word of more of your neighbors losing their jobs.

"It's not about who does something right or what you did wrong.
Circumstances happen you can't control," says Penny Craig.

"Like me. Came back from vacation tanned and happy, and ended up unemployed."

Ms. Craig's retail job disappeared months before the latest waves of layoffs starting filling most every chair in the Tennessee Career Center. So she's taken her fellow job-seekers' emotional temperatures.

"Bewildered, says this 38-year-old mother of four.

"I'd never drawn unemployment before"

"Knoxville was pretty bulletproof for a long time," says Emily Hatfield, a counselor at the Tennessee Career Center in Knoxville.

"But since the middle of December, we're getting hit--and hit hard."

Goody's return to bankruptcy has eliminated 500 jobs at its West Knoxville corporate headquarters alone.

Once its retail stores are liquidated, dozens more will be out of work.

Imagepoint is cutting 450 jobs, and facing suit from one worker who claims her company shorted her pay and benefits guaranteed under federal labor law.

Alcoa is cutting 450 jobs. Boat maker Sea Ray is expected to eliminate between 350 and 375 workers after furloughs and plant consolidations are complete.

"Still, we've taken less of a hit than the national economy," says Garrett Wagley, Director of Communications for the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Wagley admits his numbers don't include the jobs cut last month---and in the last three weeks. But he says we need to focus on the larger number: those still working.

"There are about 340,000 people employed in the Knoxville Metropolitan Area, and we've lost maybe one or two percent of that at most; not even that."

Career Counselor Emily Hatfield says many of the newly-jobless are
highly-skilled; and more importantly, easily re-trainable.

"You may need to take a 'survival job', short-term, simply to keep food on the table, Hatfield says.

"If you can land a job with benefits, and health insurance, then sometimes it's worth it to take less money for the benefits they provide.

Penny Craig calls her reality bite a blessing--the kick to get her GED.
By summer: she'll have finished classes as a medical assistant.

"Between Pell grants and the career center, I'll graduate debt -free and I'll have a job that won't run out like the last two."