Economy drives job fair

By MARK NEWMAN Courier staff writer

May 08, 2008 01:00 am

— OTTUMWA — Finding a job is rarely easy. And a downturn in the economy hasn’t helped. That may be the reason for high attendance figures at Iowa Workforce Development’s annual Ottumwa job fair.
“It seems like this part of Iowa is a tough place to find a job, especially non-factory work,” said Norman Boswell of Ottumwa.
He said when the poor economy is factored in, it “makes it even harder.”
Boswell said he hadn’t had much luck wandering the job fair Wednesday at Indian Hills Community College, but hadn’t gone to all the booths yet.
This year, said job fair coordinator Corey Stevens, applicants have more choices than before.
“Last year, we had 29 employers over at the armory. This year, we have 42,” he said.
In addition to more room at Indian Hills’ basketball court, wireless Internet connections allowed IWD to have its computers on hand as an additional resource for job seekers.
“It’s hard to get jobs,” said Henry Jones of Fairfield. “They say the economy is booming but in reality, it’s terrible. Fortune 500 companies that have never laid off anyone are now laying off [hundreds of] workers at a time.”
That can make the job search harder, he said.
“So now you’ve got a guy with 20 years’ experience looking for a job and people with no experience looking for a job,” Jones said.
He may, however, have one advantage over the more experienced worker.
“I’ll work for a whole lot less,” he said with a smile as he approached a table for First Resources Corporation.
That booth soon ran into a situation that was both good news and bad news. Just before noon, they had completely run out of applications.
“This is much better than last year,” said First Resources associate Cindy Kurtz-Hopkins as she called via cell phone for more applications.
The big advantage for applicants, visitors said, was having so many employers in one place.
Wendy Alger works in the Ottumwa school district helping high school seniors find work. She said not only does a job fair allow her to see a broad picture of what type of employment is available in the job market, it allows her to talk to human resources managers about her job development program.
“We want to put the ‘Career Connections’ name out there,” she said.
It becomes easier to make contact, Alger added, when employers have heard about her and her students.
In fact, employers also like the idea of being able to market themselves as a secondary benefit of being at a job fair.
“It’s good to get the word out, that we’re not a telemarketing company,” said Nicole Volchko, a supervisor with Synovate in Ottumwa.
Her partner, Crystal Lute, said they were giving out application phone number cards to candidates from “a lot of different age ranges. But we’re also able to tell people we are not telemarketers. There’s a stigma [with telemarketing jobs]. We let them know we’re a marketing research company.”
A number of people were taking applications or filling them out at the table hosted by Commercial Resources, a human resources company representing several Centerville businesses.
“A lot of people don’t know we have these things, these opportunities in Centerville,” said Bill Burch, president of Commercial Resources. “The more theyknow, the better.”
He said there are Centerville residents who work in Ottumwa, and Ottumwa residents who work in Centerville.
But another economic factor was on the minds of some job seekers.
Nikki Sanders of What Cheer made the trip to Ottumwa because she wants to find herself a job where she doesn’t have to commute too far every day.
“Now, with gas going up, you want to find something near you,” she said.
In fact, that was the reason at least one candidate decided to hit the job fair.
“It’s easier to walk around here than to drive from place to place — especially with gas at $17 a gallon,” Jones joked.
Mark Newman can be reached at 683-5358 or by e-mail at mgnewman@mchsi.com.

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