August 26, 2008 09:03 pm
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By Greg Grisolano
ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com
Kenneth Hill is looking for a better way to make a living.
“I’m working, but I’m looking for a better job,” said Hill, 50, as he took a break from browsing for new jobs at a career fair Tuesday at Northpark Mall. “I’m trying to stay up and to better myself.”
More than 200 people passed through the fair by noon, according to organizers.
Some, like Hill, want a better job. Others, like Ray Oldham, of Carthage, want any kind of work at all.
“I’m kind of trying to get out of manufacturing,” said Oldham, 36. “I’ve been doing that since high school.”
Oldham said he’s been unemployed for two weeks, but he’s not worried.
“I should be OK,” he said. “I was on my last job for 11 years. Luckily, I’m not married. It’s just me.”
While he has a job at a local manufacturing company, Hill said the ongoing economic downturn is slowing production where he works, and he’s looking for something better.
“The job I have, I’ve been on for 10 months, and it’s not really going anyplace,” he said. “Before I just totally lose the job, I’m searching for another one before the money stops.”
Some of those at the job fair are on the front lines of a souring economy, looking for ways to make ends meet amid rising energy and food prices, and gasoline prices that recently set records before falling back.
A sluggish economy and high gas prices are being blamed for the closing later this year of Superior Industries’ wheel manufacturing plant in Pittsburg, Kan.
Unemployment in Kansas was at 4.6 percent for July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a federal employment-tracking agency, below the national rate of about 5.7 percent. Oklahoma’s statewide unemployment rate stood at about 4 percent for the month, according to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.
But Missouri had a statewide unemployment rate of 6.4 percent at the end of July, according to the Missouri Department of Economic Development.
Locally, Jasper County has a 5.7 percent unemployment rate, while Barton County has a 9.6 percent unemployment rate. That county is still feeling the ramifications of the closing last year of the O’Sullivan Industries furniture plant in Lamar. More than 700 people lost their jobs.
Leslie Abram, project coordinator for the Workforce Investment Board, was in charge of the job fair, which was co-sponsored by the Missouri Career Center.
Abram said the job fair usually draws 200 to 300 people to the Missouri Career Center in Joplin, and she expected Tuesday’s turnout to surpass that.
She attributed the high turnout to two factors.
“Number one, because of where we are, we’re getting the foot traffic from the mall,” she said. “And we have had several layoffs lately.”
Fourteen operations, including hospitals, casinos, and manufacturing and technology companies, and municipal agencies such as the city of Joplin had booths set up to recruit workers. The booths for area casinos drew dozens of applicants.
“We are getting a good response,” said Sherry Hare, with Bordertown Casino.
Hare said the company has 20 positions to fill, from dealers to housekeepers and security personnel, and that pay ranges from $18,000 to $28,000 per year.
Before noon, the casino had received more than 35 applications.
Donna Larson said she’s been looking for a full-time job for about a month, and she applied with Bordertown and St. John’s Regional Medical Center.
“I’m working part time, but I’m looking for something full time,” said Larson, of Neosho. “I really enjoy helping people, so anything in that area or something in manufacturing.”
Larson said she’s “optimistic” that she will land a job but said that if she doesn’t do so soon, she could be in trouble financially.
“I’ll be broke,” she said with a laugh. “My husband still works, but right now it takes two incomes.”
On the Net
To browse job listings from the Missouri Career Center, go to https://www.missouricareersource.com/.
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