Jobs expo a success

Published 6:01 am Friday, December 7, 2012

If you are looking for a job, and you didn’t go to the trade center Wednesday, you missed a tremendous opportunity. More than 80 employers from across northwest Georgia came there trying to fill jobs.

Floorcovering companies, local hospitals, staffing agencies and others had hundreds of jobs they were trying to fill. The jobs they had open included drivers, nurses, front and back office staff, engineers and mechanics.

Everyone knows times are tough in the area.

Dalton has the highest unemployment rate of any metro area in Georgia. The Georgia Department of Labor reports that unemployment in Metro Dalton, which includes Whitfield and Murray counties, rose to 11.3 percent in October from 11.1 percent in September. The area has lost 23 percent of its jobs since 2007, due to the downturn in the housing market and its impact on the local floorcovering industry.

But even in tough times, many employers are still hiring, something the jobs expo drives home.

The community owes the GDOL a big thanks for bringing the jobs expo here. The event will help many people land a job, and the knowledge that so many companies are still looking for workers should also give encouragement to those who didn’t get a job Wednesday.

The jobs expo followed a jobs readiness fair month ago where local residents got expert help in preparing their résumés, polishing their interview skills and using social media to market themselves. They people who took part in that event were admitted to the jobs fair an hour before the rest of the public.

Local business leaders came up with the idea for the jobs readiness fair, and GDOL officials say they plan to roll the idea out across the state after using Dalton as a pilot program.

Again, the GDOL and local business leaders deserve a big round of thanks for their innovative thinking.