ALBANY NY (WRGB) – With unemployment afflicting many New Yorkers, there are employers out there looking to hire. The Albany Job Fair looks to buck the trend of people without work in the area
This is a way to get an employer with a face to face meeting with a candidate – something that’s very rare in these times. Especially since the Capitol Region is coming off a month where they had nearly three times the unemployment rate as they did in June of last year.
Even with high unemployment rates there are still enough employers to fill a room with social distancing. Organizer Darcy Knapp says this opportunity allows in person recruitment.
“It’s really the only place people can come out and make really good first impressions,” Knapp said. “It’s very hard sending a resume that one piece of paper to get a recruiter to pick up the phone and reach out to you. Face to face is just so much better for making that impression.”
There are more than 20 employers here, with a healthy mix of public and private employers. Most of these jobs don’t require a college degree and are looking to hire almost right away.
The organizers of this job fair say that there are jobs here that could be someone’s next career or could just be a source of income so they can pay their bills.
“If you wanna work overtime if you want to actually go in to work and keep working until hopefully all of this gets better there is a lot of opportunity here,” said Molly Hamlin, Redshift Recruiting.
The job fair’s goal is to lower unemployment rates, which are way up compared to last year. Department of labor statistics show the Capitol region had a 3.5% unemployment rate in June of last year. In June of this year, there was a 10.5% unemployment rate.
Molly Baker is looking to get back to work after losing her daycare teacher job. She says she’s looking for a temporary job for now. But is keeping an open mind that she may find her new career here.
“The jobs here would probably be temporary but you never know they could turn into long term,” Baker said.
Caroline Conrad is using this opportunity to network for her consulting business while also finding some extra work along the way.
“I have a vast degree of information and I’d like to integrate what I’ve learned in my school life and what I’ve learned in my life,” Conrad said.
She added that anyone who didn’t want to talk to employers in the main room could do so outside, or virtually through their Zoom rooms.
The next Albany Job Fair is October 7th.
