PORTLAND, Ore. – The city has awarded a $10,000 grant to the operators of the day labor site to help promote the work being done there.

The center's operators, VOZ, said they are getting far more job seekers than employers and want to change that.

The hiring site, located at the corner of Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Northeast Everett Street, opened in June thanks to a $200,000 grant from the city. It has shelter from the rain, restrooms and an organized job distribution system. Officials do not check on whether workers are in the country legally.

Operators said they are currently helping between 15 and 36 workers find jobs per day; most days have triple that number of workers waiting.

But some looking for work are avoiding the center all together in favor of waiting on street corners – even some just blocks away.

One of those people, Miguel Dominguez, said he used the city-sanctioned site several times in recent months but there was not enough work for everyone waiting there.

"One week I am going over there and nothing job in a week," he said. "And coming here, looking at my people, my friends, everybody go to a job."

VOZ organizers think the problem may be that employers need an additional hiring site. But they acknowledge they can't get a job for everyone and that some day laborers will never wait in line for work.

Still, the center's operators feel they are doing a pretty good job considering the site is relatively new.