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By Leon G. Russ
HOMETOWN NEWS
The Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium’s basement doors swung open wide to Upstate job seekers on Thursday, for the Workforce Expo.
According to Johnnie-Lynn Crosby, business services manager for the Workforce Investment Board (WIB), 67 vendors had booths manned for the 2,017 job seekers that attended the event.
She stated 33 businesses were on hand as well as 10 booths that provided entrepreneurial opportunities, and 14 booths that offered training opportunities.
Parking was at a premium as cars overflowed from the auditorium lots to the old Krispy Kreme lot and into the Spartanburg County Administrative building’s parking lot.
It was a stunning visual indicator of how many folks in the Upstate are either unemployed or looking to make a career change.
Rick Wofford, Associate Manager at American General Life and Accident Insurance Company, was manning a booth and was very pleased with the turnout.
Wofford said he had the opportunity to speak with “between seven hundred to eight hundred people and I was able to get fifty good potential employees.”
He said he spoke with 10 people “at length” and may have a tough time whittling down the 10 potential employees to the five open positions at the company.
Speaking of the Job Fair Wofford said, “I’m more pleased than I expected. We have much better results that I expected. It was definitely worth our time and effort.”
Heather Hulsey of Roebuck, a Senior Sales Director for Mary Kay was caught sneaking a bite of lunch in between meeting with potential employees. She too was happy with the turnout. She noted her company was a great place for anyone looking for a job because “they can find their own market.”
Hulsey noted the company is a great place to start, as the only requirement is to be 18 years old and ready to work.
While potential employers were happy, so, too, were the job seekers. Deanna Dawn Willard traveled from Greenville for the Employment Expo. She said, “I’ll go thirty to forty miles for a job fair.”
Williard noted the benefit of the expo was “you get to meet face to face with employers and they’re all in one place.” She went on to say “it’s so much better in person, they can see the real you and they always have questions about your resume and I can answer them.”
With the tough economic times it wasn’t hard to understand the huge turnout or the response by Latisha Massey of Spartanburg as to why she was there. “It’s a great opportunity to find a job. I’ll take anything right now.”
In addition to employment opportunities local colleges were on hand and entrepreneurial information was available at the expo. That’s exactly what Spartanburg’s Tracey Cauthen was looking for. “I’m looking for a home-based business,” she said, “something I can stay home with my kids and do.”
A sign of how dire the economy is can be found in recent college graduate Breyon Mims. He graduated from St. Augustine College with a degree in Theater and Film last summer. Since that time Mims has been splitting his time between being an unpaid intern at PBS in Charlotte and working at the Chick-fil-A in Hillcrest Mall.
He said he was looking for work as either an editor or cameraman.
Young and old, college degree-ed and non-degreed could all be found at the expo. While they all couldn’t be placed in jobs at this expo, WIB’s Crosby believes those that weren’t able to find employment were still helped by the event.
She noted the expo also helped with resume writing and provided other training to help job seekers.
lruss@hometown-news.com
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