When times are tough, community colleges do brisk business.

Such is the case these days as Edmonds and Everett community colleges are setting record winter quarter enrollments.

At EvCC, there are 8,896 full- and part-time students, up 8 percent from a year ago.

Edmonds Community College has 11,921 full- and part-time students, up from 10,667 at the same time last year.

A big part of that, said EdCC researcher Pat Huffman, “is layoffs and people discovering their skills are out of date.”

Fall quarter has traditionally been the peak enrollment time of year, but more students seem to be sticking with school these days.

“We are closing the gap,” said Michele Graves, an EdCC spokeswoman. “Winter is nearly as big as fall.”

Adam Hiatt, 27, is one of the growing number of displaced workers returning to school. He enrolled at Everett Community College for winter quarter, nine years after graduating from high school.

Hiatt worked as an electrician before injuring his back in a car accident two years ago. He landed a job as a bill collector for six months before being laid off.

He and his wife, who want to have children some day, swallowed their pride and moved back in with his parents to save money so he could pursue a degree in engineering to earn a salary that could support a family some day.

“The next four years is kind of a setback, but it’s the next 50 years of our lives we are thinking about,” Hiatt said.

With 17 credits, Hiatt arrives at school early to study and he sticks around campus after his final class to study some more. His schedule includes precalculus, English, economics and engineering software technical design.

“I view this as my full-time job right now,” he said. “This will be the best way for me to support my family.”

One of the biggest challenges he has faced is finding parking on the crowded campus.

That comes with the territory when the campus has so many students, said Brent Thompson, 38, the EvCC student body president who also returned to school to improve his job prospects.

“That’s what I hear the most, parking, parking, parking,” he said. “I tell people, ‘You didn’t buy a parking permit. You bought a hunting permit to park.’ ”

Thompson said he’s glad instructors have been willing to squeeze extra students into their classrooms.

“Every class that I have is full,” he said.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.