After being unemployed for more than two years, Kenneth Murphy was so surprised at what looked like a job offer that he had to read it twice before the news sank in.

An IT help-desk analyst at Xanté Corp.'s California office when he was laid off in March 2008, Murphy landed a contract job at Sacramento-based Aerojet this week. It took 1,500 applications to get there—and so many hours at a local career center that he knows most of the staff.

Information technology is one of the few bright spots in the local—and national—jobs picture as the economy begins what pundits say will be a slow rebound. Health care remains strong, but not as strong as it was. Green jobs show promise, but might take a while.

“Certainly, we are seeing more activity than we were a year ago—and overall, 2010 has had more activity than any of 2009,” said Mike Dourgarian, spokesman for the California office of Milwaukee-based Manpower. “There are no particularly strong trends except technology companies, which are starting to pick up and do some hiring.”

Most want specific technical experience and support work outside the Sacramento region, Dourgarian said.

“Sacramento business with local companies is still very quiet,” he added.

Terri Carpenter, spokeswoman for the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency, is more hopeful. The region’s employers appear ready to do more hiring, but it will take a few more months to get it going, she said.

“We’re starting to see…more jobs,” she said. “However, not as many as we need.”

That means more pain for folks scrambling for jobs in what remains an employer’s market.

The unemployment rate in the Sacramento region was 12.4 percent in April, with almost 140,000 residents out of work, compared with the national figure of 9.9 percent for the same month.

It’s harder to get a job the longer people are unemployed—and long-term unemployment is growing. Statewide, 40.5 percent of people without jobs have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer—up 119 percent from April 2009, according to the state Employment Development Department.

“Hell, pure hell,” Murphy says of his two years out of work. “Sometimes I wanted to jump off the deep end, but I have a little girl, and I can’t get off the planet as yet.”

A friend he met at a job-skills course provides comic relief, Murphy added. He considers the One Stop Career Center a lifeline.

“Staff is friendly, even though they get inundated with people,” Murphy said at the Sacramento center as he prepared to fax information to the staffing company that hired him to work at Aerojet. Murphy got 10 to 15 responses to what he estimates were at least 1,500 applications.

“Everyone goes through private little wars,” he said. “You need to gather resources, think what you have going for you, and use networking skills. If you don’t have any, come in here and get some.”

IT is picking up, but finding the right person for the job isn’t easy, despite the large numbers of unemployed.

Stone Cobra, a software and services company based in Roseville, California, has recruited aggressively for 23 hires for almost seven weeks. The company has hired three and has one offer outstanding after working with six agencies and posting on four job boards, general manager Kevin Hayward said.

It currently takes about 25 résumés to get one hire for a production or implementation manager and 20 résumés to recruit one person for a technical position, Hayward said.

“I don’t get the number of résumés I need,” he explained. “The IT market is picking up, so there are less résumés floating around.”

There are lots of technical folks in the Bay Area, but it’s hard to woo them to Roseville.

Stone Cobra gets lots of résumés from laid-off workers, but their skills don’t meet the job requirements.

“The longer you are out of work, the less likely you’ll find a job—especially in IT, because it changes so fast,” said Randi Weitzman, Sacramento metro market manager for Robert Half International.