ALBANY, GA (WALB) -
The Georgia Department of Labor reported today that the state's unemployment rate declined last month to nine per cent. But there are still plenty of people looking for work, however, and hundreds of them were at Albany Technical College Thursday.
Job fairs are not uncommon these days. There are plenty of them around the state. And there are plenty of job seekers to serve.
One of them is Lutacia White. She's a Child Development major at Albany Technical College.
One day she hopes to open her own day care center, but for now, she just needs a job to pay the bills. So she's at the job fair.
"I thought it would be a great experience to come out," she said.
Judging by the crowded parking lot, she had a lot of company.
"We may have about 800 students here (Thursday)," said Judy Jimmerson, the Career Services Director for Albany Tech.
Job fairs at the school have a cap of 50 employers and all of the spaces are filled. While not everyone is hiring people right away, many are.
"About 90 per cent of the employers are actually hiring people. They have jobs available today," said Jimmerson.
One of the companies looking to hire is close to the Albany Tech campus - really close. It's the Caterpillar dealer for Georgia, Yancey Bros., based in Atlanta.
They're looking for all types of people now as the company expands.
Ashley Williams, the Assistant Human Resources Manager for Yancey said, "we do have positions available throughout the state."
But at this job fair, the company is looking for a specific group of people.
"We're particularly interested in students that attend the diesel technology program," said Williams.
And Yancey officials like what they're seeing today.
"We've been happy with the people that we've met for our particular jobs," said Williams.
At least one employer liked what they saw in Lutacia. Today she got what she was looking for.
"I went in, I talked with the manager at Kohl's. She looked at my resume and asked me if I would be available to do an interview on Saturday. So I said yes and I have a position," she said.
Hopefully something that many others will be able to say in the months ahead.
While the employment numbers were good in Georgia, there was some bad news on the job front nationwide, with 338,000 new claims for unemployment last week.
For more information on job fairs around the state, you can go to the Georgia Department of Labor site, which you can reach by clicking here.
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