The most help should go where the jobs aren't. That means Racine.

Local legislators deserve credit for working together to remind Roberta Gassman of that. In response, the secretary of the state Department of Workforce Development wisely scrapped a plan to pull staff out of the city.

The idea was to base those employees out of the Kenosha office and have them drive to Racine when needed. Such consolidation is happening statewide, with much of the $350,000 annual savings to be applied toward online job services that can reach more unemployed people than any bricks-and-mortar center.

That's a laudable goal, but this is the wrong place to abandon. Racine traditionally has the state's highest unemployment rate and, until that changes, should remain at the front of the line for help.

More than 100 people provide employment assistance at the Taylor Avenue building alone, so the two full-timers and one part-timer the state provides Racine County make up only a small portion of the effort.

Still, that small crew performs essential tasks. One works with veterans, while another oversees the education and retraining of laid-off workers. Nowhere in the state will you find a more sadly plentiful supply of those than in Racine.

Temporarily climbing out of the pit of partisan gridlock, local legislators spoke with one voice in opposing the move. They and other officials emphasized that job seekers need to know where and when they can count on help. Having staffers zip around southeastern Wisconsin, popping up here and there for a couple of hours, isn't the answer.

Nor is putting them on the road constantly to max out public credit cards on $4 gas. The agency can still consolidate elsewhere, and it plans to. According to a press release the DWD issued last week, state employees will staff 22 job centers - down from the current 38.

While the specifics are still up in the air, Racine County Workforce Development Center manager Alice Oliver hopes services aren't reduced in Burlington either. The hours at that site have already been cut.

Saving the Racine presence was a big victory. A ship the size of state government isn't easy to turn around, so we're encouraged that all hands got on deck to crank the wheel and avoid a dangerous decision.