TITUSVILLE, Florida - July 15, 2012
Thousands of former Kennedy Space Center workers in Florida are still struggling to find new jobs or match their old salaries a year after NASA ended the space shuttle program.
Some have headed to South Carolina to build airplanes in that state's growing industry. Some found lower-paying jobs beneath their technical skills that allowed them to stay in the area.
More than 7,400 people lost their jobs when the shuttle program ended last July. The county's workforce agency offered job placement and training services. Slightly more than half of the 5,700 workers the agency has been able to track have found jobs, but more than a quarter of those positions were outside Florida.
Other shuttle workers in Houston, New Orleans and Huntsville, Ala., lost jobs, but those areas had bigger economies to absorb the workers.
