Job seekers flock to state-sponsored job fair near Youngwood

With the extra federal unemployment insurance due to expire next month, jobless workers flocked to a state-sponsored job fair near Youngwood in search of work among some 40 employers offering positions in manufacturing, light industrial, office, restaurant, nursing home, emergency dispatching and a variety of driving jobs.

Shujuane Martin, president of the Hempfield-based Private Industry Council, said the jobs are there — not merely the promise of work sometime in the future.

“If somebody is looking for a job, they can find it,” Martin said.

Thursday’s job fair was held at PA CareerLink Westmoreland County, located on Pavilion Lane in Hempfield. It was part of PA CareerLink Day and an effort to promote the state’s “Join the Workforce in PA” initiative.

Participating employers were capped at 40 for the Westmoreland job fair. It was one of more than 40 such events held around the state, including job fairs in New Kensington and Pittsburgh.

Searching for a good job was the goal of Tom Hall of Madison, who said he was laid off in November from what he understood to be an “essential job” for a service company during covid.

Hall said he had been in a supervisory position and applied for work, but has been turned down repeatedly for jobs.

At age 62, Hall believes he could be the victim of what is never spoken about with older, experienced workers — age discrimination.

With the federal benefits due to expire as of Sept. 4, Hall is worried about what will happen if he continues to remain jobless.

“I don’t know what I will do. I am truly trusting in God,” Hall said.

One of the employers seeking workers, Triumvirate Environmental, an environmental recycler in Jeannette, was attracting interest as the fair continue, said Lisa Scott, human resources manager.

Triumvirate Environmental is offering a $1,000 signing bonus and wages at $18 an hour to attract workers, Scott said.

From a staffing agency’s perspective, Cassie Armstrong, office coordinator for Express in Penn Township, people should be jumping at the chance to return to the workforce now. The agency has about 300 openings through its employment partners, but that may drop to 30 when the federal benefits dry up, she said.

With laid off workers receiving extra unemployment insurance, such as the $300 a week benefit, Alex Linardi, a business development manager for Nesco Resources LLC’s Youngwood office, said they are faced with unemployed workers having an unrealistic perspective on the value of the talents they can offer an employer.

“They’ve got $14 an hour skill sets and they want $20 an hour” because that is the rate they are being paid while collecting unemployment compensation, Linardi said.

The state Department of Labor and Industry’s decision last month to reinstitute the job search requirements to maintain unemployment compensation has helped spur interest in people taking a job, but Tina Grace, branch support specialist for Nesco, said some don’t take work that is there for the taking.

“The challenge is getting them to the job,” because some jobless failed to go to work even when the agency gets them a job, Grace said.