Times are tough, and landing the ideal job may require relocating – spouse included.

The Trailing Spouse Program is offered through the La Plata County Economic Development Alliance.

The program has assisted about 20 families in the past year and a half with distributing the résumés of spouses who have been relocated to the Southwest for work.

Thus far, at least eight of those 20 applicants were successful in obtaining a job, said Trailing Spouse Program Project Manager Lisa Schwantes.

Damian Peduto, county planning director, was hired in August 2012. He moved with his wife, Valerie, from South Florida shortly after getting hired.

The couple had never been to Durango but were excited about the move.

At the time, Valerie Peduto was working remotely for a company in Maryland.

At the beginning of 2013, she continued to work remotely, but found herself needing to find a new job because of changes within the company, she said.

Damian Peduto contacted Roger Zalneraitis, executive director with the alliance and asked about the initiative.

Within two months, Valerie Peduto found employment, Damian Peduto said.

His wife is currently the finance director for United Way and for the Community Foundation of Southwest Colorado.

Both took a pay cut to work in Durango, however. Knowing they could rely on a dual income relieved a financial and emotional burden, he said.

“We were so excited and highly appreciative of the outreach effort,” Damian Peduto said. “It wouldn’t have been possible to find this on our own.”

Jennifer Boyer’s husband, Matt, was hired at Russell Planning and Engineering in May.

The family relocated from Ontario, Oregon.

Jennifer Boyer said the area where she had come from was economically depressed.

She was having difficulties obtaining a job. The decision to move to Durango wasn’t hasty, but it only took a brief discussion, she said, for the family to realize Durango offered a better opportunity.

She submitted her résumé to the alliance and received several leads from various agencies.

She has since obtained employment with a local insurance agency.

This was a job she found on her own. She will be starting in about a month, once she receives proper licensing.

Though she was able to find work on her own, she was appreciative of the Trailing Spouse Program.

“I was super impressed that there was an initiative like this,” she said.

“It’s hard on families when you are moving and one half of you doesn’t have a job,” she said.

The alliance, in conjunction with her own efforts, broadened her opportunity to find work.

“It shows that people in Durango care, and they aren’t leaving you hanging,” Boyer said.

“An increasing number of families depend upon two incomes to support their households,” Zalneraitis said in an organizational news release.

“This is becoming a challenge nationally for companies to recruit new hires. We also found through our business-retention visits (and surveys) that this was one of the top challenges facing our local companies to attract the talent they need to grow,” he said.”

Schwantes said the program has expanded across state lines.

The agency has partnered with the 4 Corners Economic Development Group in Farmington in an effort to expand and help more families across the region.

vguthrie@durangoherald.com