George Fichna tapped on a computer keyboard, scrolling through available jobs in Niagara.

Job postings included, among others, a food and beverage server at a Niagara Falls steakhouse paying $7.83 per hour plus tips, an assistant manger of retail at a store in the Seaway Mall in Welland paying $11.50 per hour with a 30-hour work week, an electrical technician at a placement agency paying $13.80 per hour, a parking lot attendant in Niagara Falls paying $9 per hour and a room cleaner in Grimsby, with pay to be negotiated.

With a slew of high-profile plant closures and downsizing announcements of late, Fichna wasn't seeing any manufacturing jobs.

"You don't see any manufacturing jobs," the 56-year-old St. Catharines resident, who's worked in the nursery sector and as a delivery truck driver, said. "It's not going to get any better."

"No one wants to hire people my age: they want people who are 20 or 25."

Many of the thousands of workers who have lost their jobs at Niagara plants in the last few years, or who are about to lose their jobs, face similar prospects.

Denis Talbot, co-ordinator of a job search action centre for workers laid off at Dana Corp. in Thorold, said that 89 per cent of the 700 workers laid off in the chassis division and the roughly 140 workers laid off in the drivetrain plant -- there are about 60 jobs remaining there -- have either found new jobs or are entering government-funded job retraining programs.

But it's not all good news: the workers who landed jobs at John Deere in Welland now face losing their jobs again, with that company announcing in September it was closing the plant, eliminating 800 jobs. And the Dana workers who found jobs elsewhere "almost always" took pay cuts, in many cases substantial ones, said Talbot.

"It's tough to live on," he said. "But you adjust. Instead of a new car every three years, you keep it for 10 years. You don't go on big vacations or buy the toys."

With Canada set to go to the polls October 14, the economy has become the key issue in the campaign -- at least in a badly battered Ontario, long considered the country's economic engine.

When he visited Welland shortly after the John Deere closure announcement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper didn't even mention the job losses when he announced new measures to control tobacco marketing to youth. When pressed by reporters, Harper said it's not "all doom and gloom."

Walt Lastewka, the Liberal candidate in St. Catharines riding, accused Harper of turning a blind eye to the challenges facing Ontario manufacturers, content to let free market forces dictate the province's future and resulting in the "devastating" loss of thousands of jobs in Niagara.

Dean Allison, the Conservative candidate for Niagara West-Glanbrook riding, said in response to candidate questions from Niagara This Week that the government has invested more than $40 million in Niagara infrastructure over the past two years, with another $35 million committed. The government's accelerated capital cost allowance tax relief will allow manufacturers to fully write off investments in machinery and equipment more quickly, he said. Most importantly, he said, the government set up a $1 billion Community Development Trust to help industries and workers suffering economic hardship, Allison said.

John Maloney, the Liberal candidate for hard-hit Welland riding, said people he's running into on the campaign trail are afraid. "They're very nervous. People are wondering, 'is my job secure?' For (Harper) to turn a blind eye is not leadership."

Dave Heatley, the New Democratic Party candidate for Niagara West-Glanbrook, said successive Liberal and Conservative prime ministers have for 25 years handed unprecedented tax giveaways to foreign investors who have snapped up Canadian companies and shut them down or moved them to other countries.

Shawn Willick, the Green party candidate for Niagara Falls riding, said Niagara keeps focusing on "sunset industries" that are dying. Instead, there has to be a shift to growth sectors such as renewable energy, he said.

Niagara Falls Conservative candidate Rob Nicholson said his government has exemplified "prudent fiscal management" through income tax cuts and reducing the hated GST while maintaining a balanced budget and paying down the national debt.

St. Catharines' Fichna said he's not picky about what kind of job he lands. He recently visited some hotels in Niagara Falls and applied for jobs as a room cleaner.

"I never got a call back," he said.