Great Turn-Out for Job Fair

Elva Macias, labor and employment specialist at the Lamar Workforce Center, said their job fair held Wednesday, September 21^st, was very successful, “We actually started early, at 10:30am, because by that point we already had people waiting for the job fair to begin at 11am.”  She estimated that 50 people had taken part in the job fair in the first hour and at least 60 showed up by noon.  The Job Fair brought out a total of 89 persons by the end of the afternoon.

Macias added that due to the interest in potential employees and employers, she plans to hold a job fair each quarter of the year. “This is the first time we’ve done this and because of the turnout and the way this has been received, we’ve decided to hold job fairs for other businesses in the future,” she stated.  Five employers discussed openings with prospective workers until 2pm that day.  They were:  Seaboard Foods, Lamar Estates, Argus/Arkansas Home Health, Southeast Developmental Services and Ports to Plains Truck Plaza and Restaurant.  The businesses were looking for employees in various categories such as: Farm tech, CNA’s or Registered Nurses, Health Service Aides or mechanics as well as restaurant and C-store employees at the Ports to Plains Truck Stop.

“People were very committed to find a job. We even had a person drive in from Rocky Ford for an interview,” Macias added.  She said that space limitations in the Workforce Center may result in holding the next job fair at a different location.  Each of the business representatives used an office at the Workforce Center to conduct their interviews, but that was as many offices as they had to spare.

Anthony LaTour, the director of the Alternative Education Program held at the Lincoln School, had his students attend that morning so they could experience the type of questions they’d be asked when they applied for work. The most recent state statistics on jobs for Prowers County shows there are 224 persons unemployed as of August, a slight drop from the year before.

By Russ Baldwin