The NCWorks Career Center has hosted many career fairs in the past, but this week’s fair has a new twist – every employer present will be offering at least one position that pays $15 per hour or more.
A dozen different businesses and non-profits have signed up to participate in the fair at the Robert C. Carpenter Community Building, including Harrah’s Cherokee, Macon Program for Progress, Drake Software, BalsamWest and more. Career Center director Paula Alter says that while this fair’s selection of employers is smaller than some previous fairs, it may be more targeted to where people want to work. A wide range of factors including stimulus payments, unemployment benefits, eviction moratoriums, new family commitments, early retirements and continued concerns related to COVID-19 have shifted some of the hiring process power to workers. That means employers must take more aggressive measures to find good help.
“Everyone we’ve talked to is struggling to find people to work,” Alter said. “It’s led a lot of employers to reexamine their pay scales.”
Employment numbers have been a hot button issue across the country this year as vaccines made a return to normal business practices more feasible. North Carolina is doing relatively well on the unemployment front, with a rate of 4.4% in July compared to the national rate of 5.4%. That’s half of what North Carolina’s rate was last July, and Macon County is doing even better with 4.2%.
“North Carolina’s July 2021 unemployment rate decreased 4.4 percentage points from a year ago,” reads the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s August employment report. “The number of people employed increased 8,361 over the month to 4,777,400 and increased 278,125 over the year. The number of people unemployed decreased 9,579 over the month to 222,315 and decreased 210,978 over the year.”
However, unemployment is an imperfect metric that doesn’t consider people currently outside of the workforce. Only about a third of Macon County’s population is part of the workforce; nationwide, about half the population is in the workforce.
Local employers in every sector still find themselves short on qualified candidates. Franklin Chamber of Commerce director Linda Harbuck said many chamber members would have to push their wages to the extreme to fill in the gaps. “Even $15 an hour isn’t enough to get everyone working,” Harbuck said. “It’s quite a jump for this area.”
Alter hopes the job fair will generate more enthusiasm among jobseekers in Macon County. If every employer has a high-wage job to offer, it’s a stronger incentive to make an in-person connection with an employer beyond submitting an online application. Taking that initiative could make all the difference for both parties.
“It’s not all food service. It’s not all hospitality. We’ve got a wide spread of options,” Alter said. “There are employers here who are offering a living wage.”
The job fair will be held at the Robert C. Carpenter Community Building on Friday, Aug. 27 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, call the NCWorks Career Center at 828-369-9534.