Job Fair Targets Oft-Forgotten Candidates
Some of the biggest employers in Los Angeles County, trying to fill out their job rolls at a time when unemployment rates continue to shrink, are targeting a segment of the population usually underrepresented in the work force: the elderly, disabled, veterans, welfare moms, rehabilitated drug addicts and others known as “people with special needs.”
As the county’s unemployment rate hovers around 5.5%--the lowest level since July 1990--many local employers have been forced to look at nontraditional pools of job applicants.
“It’s difficult to find people willing to leave their current jobs,” said A.J. Dale, a recruiter for local phone company GTE Corp. “As the [labor] market continues to get tighter and tighter, unconventional ways of finding people will continue to be needed.”
GTE, for example, has not been able to fill 50 openings in the retail and sales departments at its Long Beach facility for the last several weeks, he said. These jobs are largely nontechnical, low-skill positions such as answering phones and dealing with customers.
Meanwhile, at Qualex, a photo-finishing division of Eastman Kodak with offices in Long Beach, there are about a dozen unfilled positions in the customer service department alone, said human resources supervisor Debra McCarty. There are other job openings in the laboratory as well, she said.
Such employers are being forced to consider unqualified applicants in order to make up for the dearth of willing prospective workers coming through their doors.
“Companies are hiring more people with few basic skills, and they have to train them,” said David Finegold, a USC business professor who specializes in employment relationships. “No one is trying to come in and fill those jobs.”
The need to tap resources not yet mined led Dale, McCarty and other recruiters Monday to a job fair that was billed as the first of its kind. It brought together hundreds of people with disabilities, the elderly, veterans and others to meet employers including GTE, Exxon Mobil and Federal Express.
Roy Rodriguez, 47, who was laid off from his warehouse job a month ago, was busy filling out numerous applications at the fair, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Long Beach. He believes that employers are reluctant to hire him because they don’t want a middle-aged man loading and unloading heavy merchandise from trucks.
“It’s all I know,” said Rodriguez, a Long Beach resident. “I’m looking for anything that pays some green. I just don’t want to live on the streets.”
Tameka Davis, 21, stopped at every employer’s booth, hoping to find a job doing what she enjoys best: talking on the phone. Davis, who has cerebral palsy and uses an electric wheelchair, says it’s much more difficult to look for a job on her own, transporting herself from office to office.
“I’m a people person. Getting a real job is my dream,” said Davis during a short break from visiting employers’ booths. “Being like this does not stop me. I can do anything I want to do.”
Monday’s job fair, organized by temporary employment agency Manpower Inc., appeared to be a big boost for both job seekers and companies, with many applicants leaving the hotel ballroom with scheduled interviews and prospects of new jobs.
“This is great because we don’t normally have a lot of contact with veterans and others with special needs,” Dale said.
Advocates for the disabled--who number about 50 million nationwide--hope that such efforts, coupled with the continued tight labor market, will help the disadvantaged find and keep long-term jobs.
