Brookdale job fair draws hundreds

Brookdale job fair draws hundreds
Jobs are available, but not all are full time
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer
Anastasia Davis has been out of work for eight months but is hopeful that her employment status will change sometime soon.

Adriane Smith (r), of Long Branch, speaks with Kerry Zukowski, Eatontown, at the U.S. Census Bureau booth during a job fair sponsored by Brookdale Community College and held at the Long Branch Portuguese Club on March 12. Story and more photos, page 24. Adriane Smith (r), of Long Branch, speaks with Kerry Zukowski, Eatontown, at the U.S. Census Bureau booth during a job fair sponsored by Brookdale Community College and held at the Long Branch Portuguese Club on March 12. Story and more photos, page 24. Davis, of Asbury Park, attended a job fair sponsored by the Brookdale Learning Center in Long Branch last week and walked away feeling unsure about her job outlook.

“I felt a little discouraged,” Davis said as she was leaving the March 12 fair, which was held at the Portuguese Club on Broadway.

Davis had the opportunity to speak with companies such as ShopRite, Aflac, Avon, Marshalls and with the Army National Guard, which had representatives at the fair.

She was one of 700-plus job seekers expected to attend the job fair that featured 55 vendors eager to talk to potential employees.

Job seekers talk with representatives of local employers at a job fair held at the Long Branch Portuguese Club on March 12. CHRIS KELLY Job seekers talk with representatives of local employers at a job fair held at the Long Branch Portuguese Club on March 12. CHRIS KELLY Learning Center Director Ed Johnson said in an interview before the event that this year’s fair was expected to have a larger turnout than previous job fairs.

“This is the fourth year that I’ve done the job fair,” he said. “The first two or three years we usually had about 50-55 vendors and maybe just over 200 participants.

“Last year we had close to 700,” he added. “There was a dramatic increase based on the economy.

“This year the amount of calls that we’ve had from interested participants and community members has led us to believe that we are going to surpass last year.”

Johnson said some companies were prepared to interview job candidates on Friday.

Simone Williams, Asbury Park, and Sheteema Wright, Neptune, fill out job applications for one of the employers at the Brookdale Community College job fair held at the Long Branch Portuguese Club on March 12. CHRIS KELLY Simone Williams, Asbury Park, and Sheteema Wright, Neptune, fill out job applications for one of the employers at the Brookdale Community College job fair held at the Long Branch Portuguese Club on March 12. CHRIS KELLY “There are some representatives that indicated they will be doing on-site interviews, so we have private interview rooms set up,” he added. “We really just sort of connect people who are looking for jobs with vendors that are looking for employees.”

On Friday, Johnson said the first few hours of the fair were already well attended.

“We’ve had a great start this morning,” he said. “There are some that come with specific needs and there are some that just come in general.”

Johnson said the type of participant the fair attracts has changed in recent years.

“Our original crowd used to be seasonal, sort of college-age crowd,” he said. “In the last two years, we saw that quadruple because of the economy.”

He said a wide range of employers attend the job fair.

“We have a wide variety of vendors, from seasonal like Great Adventure to larger companies like ShopRite and some of the stores down Route 36 and 35,” he said. “There are just a wide variety of part-time, seasonal and full-time employment situations.”

Also listed were Monmouth County, New Jersey Transit, New Jersey Department of Labor, Brookdale Community College, Aflac, the U.S. Army and U.S. Coast Guard, and others.

“The U.S. Census is going to be here, and they are looking to hire hundreds of people,” he said. “That’s not really based on your previous employment history; they are looking for community members with people skills.”

Johnson said the fair draws job seekers from far and wide.

“It is open to really the entire community,” he said. “We have some local Long Branch people, people from Monmouth County, and we even have people coming from other counties.

“The economy is really a challenge for everybody, so people are really coming from far away in search of employment.”

Some at the fair last week were looking for a new career.

“I’m looking to expand on my previous experience or move on into a different career,” Long Branch resident Mark Miller said. He previously worked in retail management and has been unemployed since May 2009.

Freehold resident Laquanda Washington talked to representatives of three banks at the job fair but left not feeling confident of being hired, because of her lack of experience.

Some came away feeling optimistic about their chances.

“It’s going really well,” Red Bank resident Lianne Matarese said. “I see a lot of different people here.”

Matarese, currently a temporary social worker for the Center for Vocational Rehabilitation in Eatontown, led a group of 10 people to the job fair who were looking for jobs.

Matarese graduated from college in May 2009 with a degree in social services and has had a difficult time finding full-time work, she said.

At least one vendor said there are jobs available with his firm.

“We are looking to hire full-time financial representatives,” Dimitri Kontarinis, of Northwestern Mutual, said. “There is no set number, but we have opportunities and we have hired from this campus before.”

Kontarinis, who is assistant to the human resources director, said the company has been successful in hiring qualified candidates at the Brookdale job fair in the past.

“We’ve been to the job fair before,” he said. “We have gotten a great recruit from here that is still with the company.”

According to Johnson, this year Brookdale wants to do a better job of tracking whether or not those who attend the fair actually get jobs.

“We have not done really anything formally, but we intend to do [tracking] as it’s become more successful,” he said, adding that they would rely this year on the participants contacting them.

“We are trying to do some tracking,” he said. “This year we have a form that individuals can fill out, and we ask them to keep in touch with us.”

He said one of the most important factors in a successful job fair is to get the word out.

“We had postcard mailings, we’ve had some newspaper and radio spots,” he said. “The word really has been out there. It really has reached hundreds of businesses.”

He said there is a misconception that there are no employers looking to hire at this time.

“The silver lining is that there are jobs,” he said. “I’d say we’ve gotten close to 35 employers that are ready and need people.”

But he acknowledged that many businesses are looking for part-time employees, to defray some of the rising cost of health benefits.

“The challenge here is a lot of them [job openings] are going to be part time to threequarter time,” he said. “I think what we’ve seen is that we have a lot of positions just below the 40-hour job.

“I guess that’s a breaking point for benefits,” he added. “We are seeing a lot of the 30-, 35-, 39-hour jobs.”

However, Johnson said that because of the job climate, people who are unemployed are willing to take jobs they may not have been willing to take in the past.

“At this point, we are seeing people that just need to bring an income in,” he said. “We are talking about food and mortgage and electricity. It may not be their original salary, but they need something.”
Contact Kenny Walter at
kwalter@gmnews.com.


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