Penn Township hiring agency holding drive-by resume dropoffs

A Penn Township employment agency is giving job seekers the chance to drop off their resumes Thursday without ever leaving their car, thus maintaining safe social distancing while enhancing their chances for a new job.

The drive-through job fair at Express Employment Professionals will give those who are laid off during the covid-19 shutdowns as well as workers wanting a better position the chance to present their qualifications to an employment agency at a time when face-to-face interviews are not possible, said Paula Schmidt, president of Express Employment Professionals.

The drive-through job fair will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the agency’s offices along Route 130, west of the Pennsylvania Turnpike overpass.

As Westmoreland and other southwestern Pennsylvania counties have moved to the yellow phase of the colored-coded system to full reopening, more businesses have resumed work.

While some people are waiting for a call to return to their previous job, “people are looking for job opportunities,” Schmidt said.

“We are picking up work” and starting to see an increase in requests for people to fill jobs, said Schmidt, whose agency servers more than 100 companies.

The agency has employer clients in accounting, financial analysis, light industrial work, the skilled trades and CNC machine programming, Schmidt said. Some positions are temporary and others are contract to hire, meaning the job leads to a placement, Schmidt said.

The employers pay Schmidt for her firm’s hiring services, not the worker seeking the job, Schmidt said. The employers also pay benefits, she noted.

For those using a GPS to find the office, the address is 4012 Route 130, Suite 300, Irwin, PA 15642 Prospective job seekers have the opportunity to enter to win a $100 gift card.