Expo helps job seekers after COVID-19 pandemic

Jul. 22—More than 150 people flocked to Sanford on Wednesday for the Joint Community Job Expo, an event that gave job-seekers the chance to connect and interview with some 30 employers from Lee, Harnett and Chatham counties.

The expo focused on jobs in manufacturing and other hands-on skills, offering starting salaries between $14 to $30 an hour. Dedra Bartlett, who immigrated from Barbados about 10 months ago, was looking something in administration, she said.

"I am just now feeling my way around the job market here in the area," Bartlett said. "(I do) mostly administrative work, but I'm also open to entry-level positions so I can expand my experience level. I'm checking out most of the stalls here except those with the specialist skills."

Bartlett, of Broadway, said settling in Lee County has been a slow process. But, "it's very exciting to actually have a face for places (employers) you might see online," she said.

Job seekers came from across central North Carolina, including Quann Smith, 21, who lives in Richmond County.

"I'm looking to expand my skills a little bit and maybe learn some new things," Smith said. "(I'm looking for) something that's pretty consistent, pretty straightforward. And you're not going in thinking you're doing one thing and then once you get hired, you're doing the complete opposite."

Smith said recently left a job as a car salesman for "personal reasons." He's worked in retail since he was 16 and is looking for a position where he can gain some new expertise prior to joining the military.

Smith said he's considering enlisting in the U.S. Army, but he's amenable to whatever opportunities come his way.

"I'm open to wherever the world takes me," he said.

The joint community job expo, the first of its kind in Sanford, was organized by Central Carolina Community College in partnership with BelFlex Staffing Network, Sanford Area Growth Alliance, Triangle South Workforce Development Board, Chatham Economic Development Corporation, Harnett County Economic Development and Principal Financial Group, according to a news release.

The expo was designed to bring everyone together in one place, so participants could learn about the variety of job opportunities, as well as resources for things like childcare and transportation, said Margaret Roberton, vice president for Workforce Development at Central Carolina.

"The idea was if we could pool a lot of resources and leverage all of our different tools to do something collaborative ... we might have a better impact. By doing that, our ability to reach out, our ability to serve a lot of folks was greatly increased," Roberton said.

"We brought some of the resource folks in because sometimes childcare is the thing that keeps you from keeping that good job. We've got folks from the college here because a little bit of extra education lets you go from a good job to a great career path."

Roberton agreed the expo was a good opportunity for people to start looking for jobs following the coronavirus pandemic. The economic shutdown put some 23 million people out of work nationwide at peak unemployment, including 648,000 in North Carolina and about 3,800 in Lee County.

The state's unemployment rate has been dropping since May 2020 and just dipped under 5% for the first time in 14 months. As of June, the unemployment rate was 4.6% in North Carolina and 4.9% in Lee County.

As coronavirus cases drop and regulations ease, many people are restarting their job hunt. Others, however, are more hesitant to return to the office.

Reasons for staying at home vary, said Brenda Clegg, the business development and community liaison for BelFlex Staffing Network. Clegg is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce's Education & Workforce Development Committee.

Many people want to work, but they may be making more money on unemployment than they would working one or even two minimum-wage jobs, Clegg said. It could be that people can't afford childcare, or their childcare facility isn't open yet, she added. Maybe they've discovered they want a job that allows a better work-life balance, one that lets them spend more time with their families.

"There are multiple factors. It's not that people are lazy, it's not that people don't want to work. It's that the wages and the culture are not meshing and right now, they need that," Clegg said.

"The shutdown has made a lot of people stop and evaluate where they are, what's important in life and how they want to move forward."