GAINESVILLE – “Help Wanted” would have been an appropriate sign to hang on the main entrance to the Gainesville Civic Center Wednesday morning; the annual Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce Job Fair was underway.
“We’ve got about 67 exhibitor booths, tons of employers that are looking for great employees… there’s so much opportunity here for everything from professional positions…all the way down to entry level…there’s really something for everyone,” said GHCC Project Manager Amanda Lewis.
Every exhibitor booth for Job Fair 2017 had been rented, a sharp contrast to the same event seven or eight years ago when the Great Recession was at its zenith and job openings were scarce.
Lewis said the Chamber expected a thousand job seekers to attend the fair, a number similar to last year.
“Definitely fewer people out of work,” Lewis opined, “but still people that might have gotten into something that wasn’t quite right for them and now they’re ready to make their move into what they really want to be doing …looking for that next step, that better job than what they have now.”
Job seeker Stewart Alewine of Flowery Branch fit that description perfectly.
“I’m currently employed but just looking for a different field of work,” Alewine said. “I’m a residential builder right now and I’m looking for something in plant maintenance.”
The 47-year-old added that he had encountered several possible job leads while speaking with various vendors.
Hall County’s largest employer, Northeast Georgia Health Systems, had a booth near the front entrance.
Healthcare Recruiter Angels Nicholson said activity at the NGHS booth had been brisk, and productive.
“I’m very impressed with the candidates that are coming through this year, prepped with resumes’; they’ve all done research on the positions we may have available,” Nicholson said.
“Right now we have just over 400 openings…including the Gainesville, Braselton and Winder hospitals,” she added. “We have a variety for anyone who is looking for a position right now.”
Nicholson confided that in the first hour of the job fair she had already sent someone to a second-level interview for an open position.
The excited and busy environment of the Civic Center made State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler blend in with the crowd, but the Commissioner was anxious to share his enthusiasm over the strong job situation in Gainesville and Hall County.
“A lot of them (employers) are looking for entry level people that they can move up eventually,” Butler said. “And that’s very good news.”
Regarding changes taking place in Washington, DC, with healthcare legislation, Butler said, “This actually is going to help a lot of our smaller businesses grow and expand and you’re going to see things do even better.”
Butler said hiring was on the rise in all sectors of employment except one: “The only area that we’re hearing that‘s not doing a lot of hiring is government.”
He chuckled and added, “If you’re coming from the conservative side of the aisle you’re pretty excited to hear that.”
Butler said Gainesville and Hall County epitomized an area where successful employee recruitment was in place.
“Everything is connected when it comes to job growth: education, parks and recreation, entertainment, it’s your restaurants, it’s your communities. Everything is connected; not one thing is necessarily more important than the other,” Butler said.
“I always hear people complain when the county or the city spends money on a park or an amphitheater. They say ‘That’s just a waste of money, that’s not going to help bring jobs!’ Actually it does.”
The GHCC says that any job seekers unable to attend today’s event can still learn who the vendors are and what openings they wanted to fill by visiting the Chamber’s website. (Click here)
