Sen. Evan Bayh brings job fair to Ivy Tech in Sellersburg

New Albany Tribune & Jeffersonville Evening News

August 11, 2009

Hopeful students and prospective employees crowded into a conference room lined with booths of local businesses at Ivy Tech Community College in Sellersburg on Monday.

The event was part of Sen. Evan Bayh’s, D-Ind., seventh-annual job fair, job training and small business summit.

It was the first time Bayh — a member of the Senate committee on small business and entrepreneurship — brought his job fair to Sellersburg. He has several locations throughout Indiana on the docket for later this week. The purpose of the job fair, sponsored by Ivy Tech and WorkOne, is to help connect job seekers with local businesses.

The goal, of course, is to foster real growth and employ those in need of a job in Indiana.

Bayh said the job fairs address needs in three ways. The first way is to bring employers together with people that are looking for a job. Secondly, people from the small business administration — SBA — are on hand to help entrepreneurs put together a business plan, a marketing strategy and answer questions on how to finance a business. And thirdly, Ivy Tech and other educational institutions were present to help people improve skills so they can keep their job, advance within their job or move on to another career that may require a higher skill level.

There were plenty of local employers to choose from Monday. Twenty-four businesses were on hand with nearly 400 jobs available. Opportunities ranged from large corporations such as United Parcel Service — looking to fill 37 positions — to the Southern Indiana Rehab Hospital — looking for entry-level workers — to the U.S. Census Bureau — looking to fill hundreds of temporary positions needed to help complete the upcoming census.

The turnout at the job fair was better than expected at more than 150 people before the end of the day, said Robin Sekula, communications director for Ivy Tech.

Even with the prospect of a good opportunity, the reality may not be nearly as bright. Statistics released from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development earlier this month showed unemployment was up again, as previously reported in The Evening News. Clark and Floyd counties unemployment figures for June were 9.1 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively.

But the numbers are worse for the biggest cities in the counties. New Albany had a 10.3 percent unemployment rate for June — up from 10 percent in May and Jeffersonville’s 9.2 percent rate for last month was up from 8.6 percent in May.

“We are facing very difficult times right now,” Bayh said. “I wish there was a magic wand we could wave to suddenly make it all go away; unfortunately there is not. But there are things we can do like this job fair, like helping small businesses, like getting health care costs under control, that lay the foundation for renewed growth and prosperity for our middle class people.

“That’s what we’re here about today in Sellersburg.”

For the individuals, even with experience and an education, jobs can be hard to come by.

New Albany resident Mary Irvin attended the job fair because her previous employer — a telecommunications company — relocated to Atlanta, leaving her without a job.

“I need to find something,” she said.

Irvin, who has both an associate and a bachelor’s degree, has been looking for jobs for about a year. Many of the positions she has applied for were online, but she felt looking for a job on the Internet left something to be desired.

“When you go online it’s so impersonal to me,” Irvin said.

She said looking for a company to work for at the job fair is better because you can show a prospective employer what you know, you get a better understanding of what the position will entail and you get to interact with someone.

When asked if she was looking for a specific company or job Irvin said, “Due to the economy, anyone that will have me — almost.”

Job fair seeks new success stories amid tricky market

Merrillville Post-Tribune

August 13, 2009

HAMMOND -- To gauge how successful Sen. Evan Bayh's job fair last year was, one need not look any further than Roberto Gonzalez.

Gonzalez, who appeared with the senator during the seventh annual job fair, job training and small business summit Wednesday at the Jean Shepherd Community Center, attended last year's fair looking for a job. Not only did he get one, but it was one most qualified people would covet -- an engineering position with NIPSCO.

"We met Roberto last year and encouraged him to come to our next job fair a few weeks afterward because it was more technical and better suited to his qualifications," said Colleen Riley, a spokeswoman for NIPSCO. "We thought he was great, so we hired him first of the year in our strategic planning department, where he analyzes RFPs for our new capacity generator project."

Though NIPSCO and its parent company, NiSource, weren't doing any hiring at Bayh's fair, Riley encouraged people to come out anyway.

"We might never have met him if he wasn't here last year. Plus, he's a fantastic employee, which doesn't hurt," she said.

Financial institutions, such as First Financial and Harris N.A. Bank, were among the local businesses represented, as was Crawford Broadcasting, said Sandy Alvarez of WorkOne, one of the entities behind the summit. What was lacking was a manufacturing presence.

Dan Murchek, president of the Northwest Indiana Federation of Labor, said manufacturing is a mixed bag now, and one that's not entirely bad. Health care and government positions have been doing well since the recession, for instance.

"Laborers have been bumping because of the BP Amoco project, and road construction is doing well, too," Murchek said. "Iron and electrical, on the other hand, are still struggling, in no small part because of the General Assembly, and the stimulus money isn't coming as quick as we hoped.

Maria Santos, of East Chicago, was interested in a secretarial position of some sort. Unemployed for a year, she made sure she looked perfect before she left for the summit.

"Being unemployed is rough and really starts to get under your skin after awhile," she said. "I'm coming in here expecting opportunity and hopefully a job on the spot."

South Bend fair merges employers, job seekers

South Bend Tribune

August 14, 2009

 

SOUTH BEND -- Marilyn McIntire's retirement plans didn't include attending job fairs, but there she was on Thursday, roaming among tables of employers at Indiana University South Bend.

McIntire, of Elkhart, worked at Bayer Corp. for 36 years before retiring in 2001. When the stock market ran off the rails, a good portion of her retirement went with it.

"When you're retired, that money is all you have," she said.

So now the former office worker is looking for a way to supplement her income. She's been looking for a year, and isn't sure why she hasn't had a hit yet. Maybe it's because people think she'll want too much money, or maybe there's some age discrimination, she said.

On Thursday, she said, she picked up a lot of good information, including details on a medical transcriptionist training program that would assure her job placement at the end."I'd be willing to do customer service at Lowe's," she said. "I can think outside the box."

That willingness to explore different paths is something new this year, said Joan Fisher, human resources manager for Osceola-based Mosaic, a service provider for people with developmental disabilities.

Last year, people walked around with glazed looks on their faces, almost in a daze, she said. Many of the people she talked to had been working for decades in factories or at the same job, and didn't have any training in anything else.

"They looked lost," she said. "I'm not seeing that lost expression anymore."

This year people seem to be willing to branch out into new skills sets, Fisher said."I've got people coming and saying, 'I will take anything,' " she said. "People realize they have to get a job."

While hundreds of job seekers passed out résumés on the floor of the Student Activities Center at IUSB, Sen. Evan Bayh stood at a podium a couple of floors up and touted the effects of the job fair, which his office has coordinated for the last seven years.

Some 70 employers attended the fair with more than 1,000 job openings, he said.

"There are opportunities if you have the right skills," said Bayh, D-Indiana.

That's why a significant portion of the job fair included educational institutions, to help workers further their skills.Bayh also said federal stimulus money has been creating jobs.

"Hoosiers are very skeptical about government spending in general, and in many cases rightfully so," he said. "A little bit of skepticism when it comes to government spending is probably in order."

But, he said, payroll tax cuts gave money back to millions of workers, and $2 billion in stimulus money to the state helped prevent thousands of teacher layoffs in Indiana and massive tax increases.

Stimulus-funded construction activity is beginning, too, and that's a good thing, Bayh said.

"Some of the stuff that didn't kick in for another two, three, four years, frankly, that probably shouldn't have been in there," he said. "But you don't get to vote on perfect legislation. ... There were some good things in there."

Bayh lauded the $416 million in stimulus money seven companies will receive to build green energy facilities and stressed the importance of construction around the state.

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