I took courses of both industrial electrician and PLC at PHD seven years ago, and got electrician certificate. But I found it's difficult to get a electrician position because it's a hand-skill job basing on experience, also at that time, job market was not good. Finally I got my job in May 2003 as a technician of a Japanese machinery company (Amada), most likely job market was picking up at that time.
now, the job market is even worse (deeper and broader) than 2001-2003. My experience told that: 1. calm down, as it's not the easy time to get a job. 2. find a career direction for you in North America basing on market research and your character/interest. My personal idea, traditional manufacturing industry is going down, IT might be a good choice, but a wide range, hardware/software/network, etc. software has more oppoetunity as it's related to application, but also much choice with software.