About 400 people waited for the doors to open at The Employment Guide?s Job Fair on Wednesday at the Baltimore Convention Center.
A sign of the times, said Howard Kershner, general manager of The Employment Guide in Baltimore. “There?s a lot of demand for work right now.”
The Baltimore area?s jobless rate remained relatively unchanged in February, slipping to 3.9 percent from 4 percent in January, according to data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The region?s rate was 3.6 percent in December.
The national unemployment rate was 4.8 percent in February, when the Labor Department reported the U.S. economy lost 63,000 payroll jobs in the month.
About 35 companies ? offering health care, administrative, hospitality, sales and security positions ? set up information stands for the steady flow of job-hunters for four hours Wednesday. Avon, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union and the Maryland Transit Administration were among the employers present. The fair was free.
“It?s been pretty steady all day,” Kershner said, noting that other area job fairs decided against organizing events this year. “The employers need people, but having the funds to go out and recruit people is a different story.”
Rick Ice and Tracy Johnson, employment managers for DavCo, talked to people who thought about applying for manager, cashier and crew member positions at area Wendy?s restaurants. DavCo owns 157 Wendy?s locations in the Baltimore and Washington markets.
“You?re getting a lot more people,” Ice said. “Call it whatever you want ? cutbacks, layoffs, staff reductions ? these job fairs offer a lot of opportunities.”
Ice said he?s done well in recruiting employees at Baltimore job fairs, but he?s noticed some changes in the profile of applicants.
“You?re getting a lot of people who used to be in the food-service industry, then they went off to the real estate or banking field,” Ice said. “Things didn?t go so well for them, and now they?re coming back to food, which they know.”
