SPARTANBURG — Nearly 600 people turned out for the recent SCWorks Upstate Job Fair and slightly more than 100 of them were either offered a job or were scheduled for job interviews.
The SCWorks Upstate Job Fair brings together companies looking to hire with Upstate residents looking for jobs. Only companies that are hiring are permitted to take part in the job fair. Fifty companies participated in the most recent job fair which was held earlier this month at Summit Point in Spartanburg. Most of the companies participating in the job fair were from Spartanburg County with the rest from Cherokee, Greenville and Union counties.
Roy Lowe, director of the SCWorks Union office, said a total of 577 people attended the job fair, including 30 veterans and 113 holders of the SCWorks Preferred Pass. The veterans were the first to be admitted to the fair followed by the Preferred Pass holders and then the general public.
Lowe said that of those who attended the job fair, 29 were offered jobs and another 72 were scheduled for job interviews with the participating companies. However, Lowe said the actual number of persons offered jobs or being scheduled for interviews may be much higher. He said the number of persons being offered jobs or being scheduled for interviews is based on the surveys job fair participants are asked to fill out and less half of those attending filled out the surveys.
“The surveys ask about the effectiveness of the job fair and what they would like to see at future ones,” Lowe said. “They also ask participants about their success at the job fair. We had only 265 people fill out the surveys and turn them in and that’s where we get the number of job offers and interviews from.”
Lowe said that, based on his conversations with people attending the job fair, he believes the actual number is much higher.
“In talking with folks I think the actual number is at least twice if not three times as high,” Lowe said. “Everybody I talked to had at least one interview scheduled and one guy said he had three interviews scheduled.”
One of the services provided by SCWorks during the job fair was an Internet cafe which enabled participants to submit a job application online if requested to do by a potential employer. Lowe said the Internet cafe was used extensively during the job fair which also leads him to believe that the actual number of persons offered jobs or interviews was higher than the number gleaned from the survey.
Editor Charles Warner can be reached at 864-427-1234, ext. 14, or by email at cwarner@civitasmedia.com.
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