About 30 employers seeking workers plan to participate in Latrobe job fair

Those looking for work or seeking different jobs will have a chance to learn about employment opportunities offered by about 30 employers Thursday at a career fair in Latrobe.

Companies involved in manufacturing, construction, financial services, social work, the hospitality industry, health care, nursing homes, education, food service and employment staffing have registered to participate in the event, said Briana Tomack, president of the Greater Latrobe-Laurel Valley Chamber of Commerce, one of the sponsors of the fair. It will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Westmoreland County Community College’s Latrobe Center at 130 Depot St.

Many area businesses are having trouble finding employees, Tomack said. A workforce shortage that might have existed before the covid-19 shutdowns began in March 2020 has been exacerbated during the pandemic.

There were 7,900 jobless workers — as adjusted for seasonal hiring factors and defined as those still seeking work — in Westmoreland County in November, the most recent month for which the Department of Labor & Industry has employment data. That’s better than the 11,700 who swelled the ranks of the unemployed in November 2020.

The PA Career Link office near Youngwood has seen an uptick in the number of people seeking jobs since the holidays, said Alec Italiano, employment and training supervisor for the office adjacent to the community college.

“People are looking (for jobs) after the holidays,” Italiano said.

Employers are competing with other businesses to find people willing to work — even as they offer higher wages — at a time when there are fewer people in the labor force, which is defined as those working and looking for work. The latest data shows the county’s labor force shrunk to 171,200 people in November, 2,600 less than the county’s labor force in November 2020.

As fewer people are in the workforce, the jobless rate in the county fell to 4.6% in November, also as adjusted for seasonal hiring factors, according to Labor & Industry data. That unemployment rate improved from 6.8% in November 2020.

Tomack said job openings might be unfilled because older workers have retired over covid concerns and others left the workforce because of a lack of available child care. Day care centers might have openings for children but not enough staff to care for them, Tomack said.

James Futrell, vice president of market research for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, has said he believes some of the decline of the labor force can be attributed to older workers retiring over covid-19 concerns.

Despite some speculation that workers were remaining home because of the extra federal jobless compensation — $600 in 2020 and $300 in 2021 — Chris Briem, regional economist for the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Social and Urban Research, has said studies showed that is not the case.