Will biggest job fair in Vermont history pay off for employers, economy?

ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont noticed the biggest job truthful in state historical past in Essex Junction on Tuesday, aimed toward serving to to shut an enormous labor hole hampering the state’s financial system.

About 150 employers arrange store on the Champlain Valley Expo, and organizers hoped as many as 2,000 job seekers would cross by means of the doorways by day’s finish.

A majority of the fairgoers I noticed have been highschool college students seeking to snag a job. I talked with just a few recruiters to see if that’s the demographic they have been searching for.

“We’re very entry-level. To have the ability to work out on the street you do must be over the age of 18. However should you’re proper out of highschool we’re prepared to take you,” mentioned Michelle Phelps of ADA Visitors Management Human Assets.

“It’s not a foul factor that every one of those college students are right here however we do want folks that truly wish to work Monday,” mentioned Ryan Ahern of the Bread Loaf Company.

It was a younger crowd with college students from 18 totally different excessive colleges in attendance. Half of these colleges are profession tech facilities making a pipeline of recent employees, and the opposite half are excessive schoolers searching for internships or summer season jobs.

The lead organizer of the job truthful, Richard Wobby, mentioned they hoped to match folks with lifelong passions.

“We aren’t searching for jobs at this time, what we’re searching for is careers whether or not it’s in manufacturing, well being care, public security,” Woby mentioned.

However lacking from the crowd– not less than within the first a number of hours of the job fair– have been skilled employees searching for a brand new alternative or maybe returning to the workforce after dropping out throughout COVID.

“Proper now we’ve gotten extra college students than present job seekers,” Phelps mentioned.

Financial leaders say the scarcity of employees has employers able to do what it takes to attract older folks again into the workforce.

“Employers are prepared to be somewhat extra versatile, create a state of affairs that might work for a retiree who doesn’t wish to work 40 hours per week however could also be prepared to work 15 or 20,” mentioned Lindsay Kurrle, the secretary of the Vermont Company of Commerce and Group Improvement.

Whereas the occasion Tuesday gained’t convey many employees in for Wednesday, they’re investing sooner or later. So far as whether or not individuals who retired at first of the pandemic will come again into the workforce, that is still unclear.

Associated Tales:

Gov. Scott: Workforce scarcity threatens pandemic restoration

Organizers gear up for Vermont’s largest job truthful

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