Job fair draws crowd to businesses, services
BUTLER TWP — Job seekers were lined up and waiting Wednesday for the doors to open at the spring job and career fair at the Butler Days Inn.
Peggy Weckerly, Butler County CareerLink administrator, said more than 400 people attended to talk to the 89 businesses, agencies and schools represented there.
CareerLink organizes and sponsors the biannual job fairs along with with the Butler County Chamber of Commerce.
Vendors included 56 companies looking for workers and taking applications, 21 schools, and organizations such as Catholic Charities and other groups that help those who are out of work and in need help making ends meet.
Representatives of Brayman Construction, Penn United Technologies and Traco talked with applicants about jobs, while those from Butler County Community College, Point Park University, Pittsburgh Technology Institute and Slippery Rock University spoke with prospective students.
Erin Strain, director of Leadership Development at SRU, said she is working with the university's Career and Technology Center and its new classes in certified gas well tending. The classes are geared to laborers who want to train to work in the expanding Marcellus Shale natural gas industry.
That service complemented the focus of the representatives from Rex Energy, a State College-based gas company, who were at the fair looking for two gas well tenders.
Weckerly said while the nation is experiencing a rebound from the recent recession and while local companies are hiring again, CareerLink continues to see more and more people looking for work.
“The thing is we have the resources to help them; they're here in this room, and the people who need jobs know they can come to us (CareerLink) and these fairs for job opportunities, and that's good,” she said.
