ConEd, Catholic Charities, AVON—they’re all hiring. On Tuesday each of them participated in a job fair hosted by Assemblyman Mike Miller at the Legacy Center in Glendale.
Local agencies, such as Americare and New York Life, were on hand to share information about internal job vacancies. Catholic Charities, which provides a range of social services in Brooklyn and Queens, had a binder full of job listings within their organization.
“In these tough economic times people need all the assistance they can get.” Assemblyman Miller (D-Woodhaven) said. “We decided that putting these job fairs together would be an excellent way to find employment for those who are currently struggling to put bread on the table so they can once again provide for their families.”
While several companies at the job fair were hiring for specific positions, many others were advertising job placement and training services.
Kathy, who was representing the Queensboro Council for Social Welfare, has only been reemployed since February herself. Though she doesn’t look it, she’s over 55 years old—a group she said has a particularly difficult time finding a job.
“When people find out your age, they don’t want to hire you,” she said. “Everyone wants to hire somebody young, even though we have more experience.”
While the Queensboro Council for Social Welfare helps place everyone, they have a particular program for seniors—they’ve hired 30 recently—and are looking to get everyone transitioned into full time jobs with the aid of skill training in health and safety, customer service and computer skills.
Connections 101, a job placement company specializing in media jobs, aids college students in their job hunt. The company aims to fast track career growth opportunities like internships and informational seminars.
Jean Fedora, author of “Speaking of Success,” represented Connections 101 at the job fair. Fedora, who joined the company full time in 2009, said the most important thing is to teach students that getting diverse experience will make them a valuable asset to employers—even if their grades aren’t the best.
“When I was in college I did six internships,” she said. “We try to teach students that with enough experience their circumstances don’t matter.”
New York City government jobs were also being advertised, as were jobs with U.S. Customs, the NYPD and FDNY. Several job seekers filled out forms to express interest in taking the firefighter exam, held every four years, including this December. Applicants must be under 29, or have military experience.
By the end of the job fair roughly 200 job seekers had signed in.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the unemployment rate in Queens was at 7.6 percent in April, down from a high of 9.6 percent in the beginning of 2010 and one percent less than the current unemployment rate nationwide.
by David J. Harvey
