SALEM — On a morning when a new report showed unemployment had hit a 26-year high, Senate hopeful Martha Coakley toured a place on the North Shore that has witnessed that trend firsthand.

"This is ground zero for joblessness," said Bill Tinti, chairman of the North Shore Workforce Investment Board.

Yesterday, the board's Washington Street office in Salem was filled with job seekers as it welcomed one of the state's more prominent ones — Coakley — who's widely viewed as the current front-runner in the four-way battle for the Democratic Senate primary.

As about a half-dozen Coakley supporters held campaign signs on the corner of Washington and Federal streets, the attorney general toured the career center and met with board members just after 11 a.m.

"I'm impressed with the work you do and the concepts you use," Coakley said. "... Assuming I win, I look forward to ... promoting this as a model throughout the country."

Seated in a conference room, Workforce Investment Board members urged Coakley to modernize the Workforce Investment Act by keeping decisions at the local level and expanding opportunities for the nation's youngest, but least experienced, workers, those ages 18 to 25.

"Some of the issues we'll be dealing with in the future are jobs, jobs, jobs — how do we grow them and how do we grow them smart?" Mayor Kim Driscoll said.

"Our difficulty is making sure we're not training for yesterday's jobs," Tinti said.

Politically, Coakley seems to be winning the endorsement game on the North Shore. Driscoll, Keenan and Senate Majority Leader Fred Berry are all backing her, as are state Reps. Lori Ehrlich of Marblehead, Mary Grant of Beverly and Joyce Spiliotis of Peabody.

Coakley started the day in Danvers, meeting with members of the AFSCME union, before making the Salem visit. Shortly after noon, she fielded a variety of questions during an hourlong question-and-answer session with editors of The Salem News in Beverly.

During the meeting, she reiterated her opposition to the death penalty, despite a Boston Globe story yesterday in which death-penalty opponents criticized her for signing a brief they say would make it more difficult for federal courts to overturn death sentences.

Coakley said she's against capital punishment — even in extreme cases, such as Thursday's fatal shootings at Fort Hood in Texas.

"He's in a state that has the death penalty, and it didn't stop him from doing it," Coakley said. "... We're the only civilized country that does it."

On whether federal stimulus money was used well, Coakley said, "My jury's still out on that," but noted that it probably helped save many jobs belonging to workers who were about to be laid off and pulled the economy back from the brink.

Coakley said the country went into Iraq on "false pretenses" and, if the vote were today, she'd oppose sending additional troops to Afghanistan.

"We can't be overextended in an area where we don't know the terrain," she said. "I don't know how just adding military makes us safe."

Coakley wasn't the only top state official in Salem yesterday. Lt. Gov. Tim Murray was also in town to chair a meeting of the Seaport Advisory Council at Finz by Pickering Wharf.

Back at the Salem career center, local leaders took advantage of the attorney general's visit. Tinti tossed a couple of photos in front of Coakley to autograph, and the board presented her with a Workforce Investment Board pin.

"You're officially a Wibby now," Driscoll told Coakley.

Staff writer Chris Cassidy can be reached at ccassidy@salem news.com.