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SPARTANBURG — Fifty companies will be looking to hire workers at a regional job fair sponsored by SCWorks and people who attend the fair hoping to he hired by those companies are urged to dress appropriately.

The annual SCWorks Upstate Job Fair will be held from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday at Summit Point in Spartanburg. Veterans will be admitted beginning at 8 a.m. Holders of the SCWorks Preferred Pass will be admitted beginning at 9 a.m. The general public will be admitted beginning at 10 a.m.

Roy Lowe, director of the SCWorks Union office, said that Thursday’s job fair will have more businesses participating than the last one in October which had 40 companies.

“We’ve got 50 employers that are hiring at this job fair,” Lowe said. “Only companies that are hiring can participate in the job fair and we’ve got 50 of them for this job fair. Most are from Spartanburg, but some are from Union, some are from Gaffney and a few are from Greenville.”

Lowe said the companies participating in the job fair are looking to fill a variety of positions in different fields.

“You’re looking at anything from cooks to manufacturing to management and health care,” he said.

As part of its hosting of the job fair, SCWorks will provide assistance to job seekers including an Internet cafe which will allow them to submit an application online if requested by a potential employer. Lowe said the job seekers should bring with them multiple copies of their resumes, but if they need more there will be a copier available for them to use. He said SCWorks staff will also be available to assist job seekers including providing critiques of resumes.

Lowe said that it is important that job seekers made a good impression at the job fair because the companies participating are not only hiring, but will in all likelihood be hiring at the fair.

“We’ve had people hired that day,” Lowe said. “At the last job fair we had 34 people hired on the spot with 200-plus interviews scheduled. It’s pending the drug test and the background check, but folks were given job offers at the fair.”

Lowe said that one thing that will improve a person’s chance of getting hired is dressing appropriately. He said all too often people show up at the job fair wearing inappropriate clothing.

“One of the things that we’ve seen over the years is that people dress unprofessionally,” Lowe said. “There’s pajamas, there’s jeans with holes in them, there’s sweatpants. At a minimum, women need to wear a nice skirt or slacks and guys should wear at least dress slacks and polos.

“Dress appropriately, dress for success,” he said. “You are meeting face to face with the people who are doing the hiring.”

For more information on the SCWorks Upstate Job Fair go online at scworksupstate.com.

Editor Charles Warner can be reached at 864-427-1234, ext. 14, or by email at cwarner@civitasmedia.com.