Career fairs give desperate hope

Now this is depressing. These hundreds of desperate people, huddled together, dressed in their best outfits, on a Wednesday morning, in a casino hallway, most of them clutching résumés like talismans, hoping for magic.

It is another career fair, this one staged by a national company that comes to Las Vegas every couple of months.

The nation's highest unemployment rate brings this benefit, at least.

The fair's goal is to bring employers who want to hire people into contact with people who want to work.

There are 14 of the former -- though, to be honest, almost half of them aren't really employers. They're schools or temp staffing agencies, even the National Guard.

But there are plenty of the latter. Plenty upon plenty. Hundreds upon hundreds.

At 11 a.m., when the fair is to begin, the line snakes away from the doors of the Dallas Ballroom inside Texas Station. It winds down the hallway toward the bowling center. Past the Houston Ballroom, past another hallway, past a group of chairs until it peters out.

Once job seekers are through with this line, meant to sign them up, they are shepherded into another line. Which will get them inside to see those potential employers.

growing INDUSTRY

"I need a job, just like everybody else," says Lisa Frank, 42, who drove over here from Henderson, worrying about the gas needle.

She's just finished up in the first line, is getting into the second. She'll be inside in an hour or two, tops.

She's been through this before. She's been through it all. Interviews and Internet sites and handing out résumés to whomever sits at the front desk sometimes, just for the heck of it.

"They say I'm overqualified," she says. "Or they want somebody who's young and they can pay eight bucks an hour for a management post."

Matt Blansett, who is working the front desk for Coast to Coast Career Fairs, says it's busy like this everywhere.

"Did one in Boston the other day," he says. "We had 1,500 people."

There's a lot of sales jobs, he says. Even his company is thinking about hiring more people for sales, he says.

"We've been doing this for three or four years now," he says. "We've doubled in size every year."

So there's an industry that's expanding. Career fairs. They'll do 250 fairs this year, says Blansett, who worked for 25 years in the construction industry before he snagged this gig a few months ago.

The line moves like a half-dead snake now. Shuffle, shuffle.

"It's rough out there man," says Jeremy Lloyd, 28, who's hoping for something, anything, to tide him over.

"Anything promising," he says.

He says it's just him and his 3-year-old boy at home. He can do whatever you need, landscaping, carpentry, electrical work, maintenance. He's even done telemarketing. Recently, he says, an under-the-table gig he had dried up.

He's here today out of desperation, though he's been to these things before. Lots of sales jobs, he says. "Mostly commission based."

But he'll do what he has to do.

PAYING THE RENT

Frank, the woman who drove over from Henderson, says the same thing. She'll do whatever she has to do.

She got laid off about two years ago, she says. She was managing an apartment complex for seniors.

She struggled for a while. Went on lots of interviews. Applied for everything she could find.

"I've actually copied tons of résumés and went from office building to office building handing them out, even if they weren't hiring," she says. "I've gone to job fairs, like I'm doing today. The newspaper. Jobs.com."

She got a job at Sam's Club this past Christmas season. That was great, kind of. Good job, but it paid just $9.75 an hour. That's enough to live, but it ain't enough to catch up.

But even that dried up. She was let go in January, she says, when the Christmas rush was over.

The main income at her house is the Social Security payment her teenage son gets. His father died a year ago, she says. So here she is now, at another career fair.

"It is so tough. I pray a lot. If it wasn't for my faith, I wouldn't make it."

She pauses.

"But I'm struggling. Are my bills going to be paid? My rent?"

She is frustrated. She says it makes no sense that someone like her can't find a decent job.

"I'm even considering moving out of state," she says. "Even though I've been here since 1987, I'm ready to go."

So why doesn't she just give up? Move away. Stop trying.

"Even if I don't get it today, I know I tried. I can tell my kids I tried. I can go to bed tonight knowing I tried. I did my best."

Contact reporter Richard Lake at
rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.