Employees of the prime contractor and a subcontractor for the completed chemical weapons incineration project at the Pine Bluff Arsenal had the opportunity Tuesday to explore employment options at a job fair held at the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
Disposing of stockpiled chemical weapons was completed in November 2010 and the project is currently in its closeout phase.
The job fair was jointly sponsored by contractors URS Corp. and Southwest Research Institute, as well as the Governor’s Dislocated Workers Task Force, the Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County, and the Jefferson County Manufacturing Council.
The event attempted to match employees who would soon be out of work as well as those who have already been laid off with a group of primarily local employers interested in utilizing the applicants’ skill sets.
Mike Noyes, project general manager with URS, was pleased to offer his employees the opportunity to find gainful employment.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Noyes said. “This is an opportunity to show our employees that we can help them to find work here in this area. I was pleasantly surprised to see many of our employees who I thought might look for work out of the area who instead want to stay local. I am happy to see that people want to stay here. Many families have gotten comfortable here and don’t want to move. Southwest Research Institute is based in San Antonio and a good 50 percent or more of their employees here want to stay here. It’s nice to see.”
Bryan Barnhouse, senior project manager for the Southeast Growth Initiative, a project of the Alliance, was enthusiastic about the day.
“We have 35 exhibitors here including 25 employers and 10 training and service providers,” Barnhouse said. “The employers are from all over the state but mainly come from the greater Jefferson County region. The employers seem very happy. One of the employers told me earlier that in the first two hours of this job fair they have seen better candidates than they see all day at other job fairs.”
Barnhouse said that SGI has been working hard to find skilled employment for the former Arsenal project employees.
“The vast majority of these workers want immediate re-employment,” Barnhouse said. “Through SGI we are helping them to figure out how their skills match up with the new jobs. We put that information into the hands of Workforce Services and we targeted employers who are in high growth sectors and will be a good match for these job seekers.”
Job seeker perspectives
Paula Moore was glad to have the chance to speak with multiple employers.
“It’s wonderful,” Moore said. “This gives employees an opportunity to see what is available and helps those who don’t want to leave the area. Many people don’t want to leave because they have their families here. Another good thing is that everybody here is hiring and some are even having interviews right here on site.”
Donnie Crawford appreciated the genuine interest of employers.
“People were actually interested in hiring here,” Crawford said. “I went to one job fair where a lot of the employer representatives really didn’t seem that interested. This is the best job fair I’ve been to. It is well laid out and the representatives have been helpful. I got to interview with one of them. Employers have been better at providing information than at other job fairs.”
Gary Spencer said that the employment options were a good fit for the skill sets of those looking for work.
“I think it pretty much covered it all and is a well-rounded job fair,” Spencer said. “Pretty much anybody who comes in here can find something.”
Greg Williams saw the job fair’s benefit to employers in the area.
“This helps employers because they have a greater pool of people to choose from,” Williams said. “It is very generous of the company to host this today. This is helping people who want to stay in the area.”
Employers
David Walker, human resources manager with the Cooper Tires facility in Texarkana, said that his plant was in a hiring mode.
“The reason we’re over here looking for people is we are in need of over 100 production workers as well as positions in the skilled trades,” Walker said. “We are looking for mill wrights, people in the electrical trades and even a process chemist. We are bringing in new people every week. The set up of this job fair is great and it is organized very well.”
Kristin Daniels, a recruiter with United States Steel in Pine Bluff, appreciated the skill levels of the job seekers she was meeting.
“I think it’s been pretty good so far,” Daniels said. “It helps to have people who are actively looking for work and have the skills we are looking for. We are looking for utility techs as well as positions in mechanical and electrical.”
Kathy Halley, a career consultant with the Arkansas Workforce Center in Pine Bluff, said that her main goal at the job fair was to inform job seekers of the importance of the Arkansas Career Readiness Certificate.
“Our biggest thing is we are encouraging people to get their certificate,” Halley said. “Larger employers such as Evergreen Packaging, Stant and Arcelor are going to this to ensure new employees possess a certain level of skill. Only two of the 35 or so people I’ve seen so far have the certificate.”