LIGONIER — Gov. Mitch Daniels made two stops in our area Wednesday: one in Noble County to announce the creation of 170 new jobs, then to Elkhart to discuss help for RV workers who have lost theirs. Both counties rank in the top 5 for the number of unemployed people in the state.

But the governor said the state has a new program to help laid off workers. The state will help some of those workers get the training they need.

They’re offering $3 million worth of training grants to thousands of eligible workers. Those grants are up to $6,000 a piece, and the state wants them to put it toward their education to train for an associate’s degree and get new jobs in the state.

The governor also announced Wednesday that Millennium Industries in Noble County will create new jobs by 2011.

The manufacturing industry has left its mark in the small town of Ligonier. With the automotive and RV sector suffering, it's a hot topic.

“There’s really nobody hiring," one man told WSBT News.

Another man said that high gas prices have him concerned along with high food prices because he is retired.

Workers inside Noble County's Millennium Industries, an automotive supplier, took a break from their morning shift to welcome Gov. Daniels and big news of a plant expansion.

“It just shows that we can compete and win,” Daniels said. “$4 gas hit us hard and very suddenly. But you fight back by bringing new jobs like these.”

“We’re going to invest $9.5-$10 million here,” said Robert Vollmar, CEO of Millennium Industries. “Job creation, training and so forth.”

Putting the deal together that's bringing 170 new jobs by 2011 to manufacture direct injection fuel systems was a team effort.

“The village, the city, the county, the state worked very hard to make this happen,” Vollmar said.

But the good news is overshadowed by the state's recent unemployment numbers. Noble County had the state's third highest average with 9.7 percent.

Through it all Daniels is staying optimistic.

“Indiana’s winning, we’re better than all of our neighbors," he said. "But one person without a job is too many. That’s why we make this our top priority.”

Meanwhile, candidate for governor Jill Long Thompson’s office says while they are excited about the new jobs and grants, more Hoosiers lost their jobs under Daniels' tenure than any other governor. They also said too much focus is placed on the jobs that have been created, and not enough focus is on the thousands of Hoosiers that have lost their jobs.