LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush plans to spend another $300 million to help American workers who can't find jobs. Many of those workers are unemployed because their jobs have been exported to cheap overseas labor markets. But it turns out that more government spending may not help.

Casey Wian reports from Los Angeles .

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CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dave Kintner spent 30 years as a telecommunication engineer. He was laid off two years ago and sent out hundreds of resumes.

DAVE KINTNER, LAID-OFF TELECOM WORKER: After a couple months of doing this. well, I've got to start something else. I've got to redo some retraining.

WIAN: In his 50s, Kintner thought college would take too long, so he retrained himself in construction, first working at a home supply center, then for a contractor. Now he's on his own, struggling in an industry dominated by cheap illegal alien labor.

KINTNER: You can't go from making $35, $40 an hour down to $10 an hour and still maintain your lifestyle.

WIAN: President Bush proposes spending $300 million for community college job retraining and personally reemployment accounts. Already, the Labor Department spends $6 billion a year on a dozen retraining programs, which some say isn't enough.

ANDY VAN KLEUNEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORKFORCE ALLIANCE: We have two million long-term unemployed Americans out of work who are likely going to need new skills to get back into the job market. We are currently funding federal programs that at best might be retraining a tenth of those workers every year.

WIAN: But more federal spending may not be the answer.

(on camera): In 1996, the General Accounting Office studied the Federal Job Training Partnership Act. It found no significant impact on long-term employment rates or wages. It's been replaced with another program.

BILL CONERLY, NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS: The evidence overwhelmingly says, our efforts to create skills that help people get better jobs have not worked. It's been more or less money down a rat hole.

WIAN (voice-over): Retraining works best when it goes beyond basic skills and prepares workers for specific jobs. Westwood College identifies hot job markets and offers training to match.

JOHN HANSON, WESTWOOD COLLEGE : On average, 80 to 85 percent of our graduates are employed within their field of expertise within the first 90 days after graduation.

WIAN: John Osgood was laid off from his management job at a trucking company. Now he's learning computer design.

JOHN OSGOOD, STUDENT: I think it's going to open up a lot more possibilities.

WIAN: Some of those include computer game design, health care and criminal justice.