CRESTVIEW — Applicants were fewer at this year’s North Okaloosa Veterans and Florida Manufacturing Career Expo.
But that’s a good sign, recruiters said.
“That means the economy is getting better,” InDyne personnel assistant Patty Ross said. “But if we walk away with even one good hire, we’re happy.”
More than two hours after the fair’s 9 a.m. start Thursday, only 70 applicants, many of them veterans or military members about to separate from the service, had walked through the Crestview Community Center doors.
Previous years have seen several hundred applicants on the floor within the first couple hours.
But for job seekers such as Nicki Ogle, who was scouting opportunities for her active duty husband at the Troops to Teachers table, the slow pace allowed an opportunity to spend more time with a potential employer.
“My husband is separating soon and he’d make an awesome teacher,” she said as recruiter Carolyn Sutton gave Ogle recruiting materials and registration instructions to share with her husband.
SERVICES PLUS JOBS
In addition to employers, attendees found a variety of veterans services and educational opportunities.
“This is what makes us a little different than other job fairs,” CareerSource Okaloosa Walton’s Liz Westby said. “We have it all.”
The fair was part of a statewide series of job recruitment events emphasizing careers in manufacturing, “but we found a strictly manufacturing job fair doesn’t do real well in this area,” Westby said.
One area business, Holt-based Certified Manufacturing, was hoping for exactly the sort of new-hire a manufacturing job fair might attract.
“We are very, very busy,” Director of Administration Michelle Rasbeck said. “We had to open up our third building that we were using for a warehouse for production.”
BACK TO SCHOOL
University of West Florida military veterans coordinator Deborah Cluff said many veterans are seeking to return to college after separating.
“We’ve had quite a bit of interest both for jobs with the university and for education,” Cluff said.
While most of the 39 recruiters represented local companies, some gladly offered positions throughout the region and the state.
“We have 1,700 vacancies throughout Florida and about 400 in our region,” Sgt. Paul Pollak of the Florida Department of Corrections said. “If you want to work in Miami, I can get you to Miami.”
Pollak said his department particularly likes hiring veterans because their training is perfectly suited for jobs as a corrections officer.
“We roll out the red carpet for our veterans,” he said. “We love our military applicants: they’re boots-on-the-ground ready. They’re my dream applicant.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview job fair sees fewer applicants