Job Openings In IL: CDC Hiring Contact Tracers To Fight Pandemic
ILLINOIS — Despite unemployment levels reaching record highs every week, employers are still searching for workers in Illinois.
A big one is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The federal agency is hiring doctors, disease specialists and contact tracers en masse to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The listings are worth a look, even if you're not a doctor or a specialist. For example, contact tracers, who are just required to have a bachelor's degree and a positive attitude, are being hired to call every person who has been in contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. So, if you can use a phone, read a script and manage Microsoft Office, you're probably qualified.
Contact tracers, "[i]n tandem with community-wide efforts to increase testing, improve communication and implementation of isolation and quarantine ... will fortify efforts to control the pandemic," according to the job listing.
The CDC says it may hire up to 300,000 contact tracers nationwide, and the pay goes up to $65,000 a year.
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The state has also set up Get Hired Illinois, a new website with more than 60,000 job postings. According to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the site will feature free vocational courses and virtual job fairs in the coming weeks.
"The financial stability and success of our residents is key to getting Illinois' economy back on its feet," Pritzker said Thursday. "Illinois won't be restored until our workers and families have the opportunities and resources they need to build and fill their lives. That's why my administration is working with businesses and industries across the state to encourage more employers to utilize the Get Hired website."
The employment site Indeed.com has also listed scores of jobs that have opened even as the coronavirus pandemic continues and many businesses remain closed. You can search for local job openings on Indeed here.
If you're a small business owner in Illinois, you can post your job openings in the Patch classified section. Here are instructions.
This article originally appeared on the Across Illinois Patch
