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Federal funding for local job training is about to hit its lowest level in eight years, even as usage of the local job bank has doubled. State and local workforce training leaders are criticizing the federal government’s cut in job training funds and its timing.

“It seems severely debilitating to be be taking money from the system that helps people get jobs when we’re smack in the middle of a recession and people are losing their jobs,” said Pat Harrington, assistant director for Employment and Rehabilitation Services at the Arizona Department of Economic Security.

The two One Stop centers in Tucson typically help 60 to 75 new clients each week, but lately, they have been seeing about 150 people a week, said Jim Mize, manager of employer outreach.

That’s because more Tucson businesses are downsizing, laying people off in big numbers, he said.

Since the beginning of the year, there have been around 25 companies that have had mass layoffs in Tucson, sometimes eliminating more than 100 jobs at once. Just last week, Hart & Cooley Inc., a major local manufacturer, announced it will cut 144 jobs by September.

There were 20,600 unemployed people in the Tucson area in January, up nearly 14 percent from 18,100 a year earlier, according to Arizona Department of Commerce research.