The Kansas CW | Job Fair Attracts Potential Employees, Employers
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By Rebecca Gannon(WICHITA, Kan.)
Competition is stiff for any available jobs in Kansas as unemployment keeps going up.
The latest numbers show the state's unemployment rate is 7.7%, and there are 48,500 fewer jobs than a year ago.
But despite all that, some Kansas employers still struggle to fill their payrolls.
From across two conference rooms at the Wichita Hyatt, you can hear the voices in the booth. Chelsey Fisher said "They have about 20 jobs listed at a time on our website."
Dodge City and Ford County Development Corporation is one of 104 employers with a booth at Wednesday's Job Fair.
Jerry Elscott is one person out of 7,000 looking for a job.
"We opened up at 10 o'clock and we had people waiting to get in, and it's been a steady flow of people ever since," said organizer Mick Allen.
The job fair attracted a lot of locals looking for jobs. "I'm hoping to find out if a person my age, in their 50's, can still go to the workplace and find something meaningful to work another ten years," said Elscott. He took early retirement from Boeing, but figures he can work for another 10 years. He just needs someone to hire him.
A lot of the potential employees at the job fair come from the Wichita area, like Elscott. But a lot of the potential employers come from other parts of the state.
"We have businesses that can't expand, " explained Chelsey Fisher of Dodge City and Ford County Development Corporation. "It's harder to recruit new businesses in, if you don't have the workforce available."
Dodge City and Topeka businesses manned booths to recruit workers in Wichita on Wednesday, all businesses that are hiring. "Right now we have about 300 positions coming available by the end of October," Fisher told a potential applicant.
But even among thousands of applicants, finding 300 people to relocate for a job might be a challenge.
As Elscott said, "It would be nice to find something right here in town."
This job fair is the first of its kind in the nation, because its original intent was to find jobs for people coming back from deployment. One out of four troops come home to no job.
Organizers say they decided to open it up to the public after seeing the number of unemployed in Wichita.
