Few jobs, but fair attracts a crowd

Published 9:51 pm Thursday, April 30, 2009

EVERETT — Cheryl Reith tapped her way down an Everett Community College hallway Thursday, taking care not to crease or rumple the pristine stack of resumes held against her oversized coat.

She apologized when she bumped into a student, explaining she was trying to find the job fair. He didn’t know it was just ahead to the left, so Reith turned right.

Minutes later, after correcting her mistake, she was in a room with tables, suit-clad job seekers and dozens of obstacles waiting to be circumnavigated.

No big deal. Reith, who is visually impaired and walks with a cane, has been unemployed since last June. Starting her own business hasn’t worked. Interviews haven’t matured into offers. And job fairs, though challenging to navigate, seem like a rare chance to make a face-to-face connection.

“I’ll use any opportunity, to be honest,” said Reith, who needs a job while she gets a masters degree from Western Washington University’s EvCC campus. She wants to study vocational rehabilitation counseling, and she was hoping to find work by visiting EvCC’s job booth at the event Thursday.

Turns out they weren’t hiring, save a few faculty positions.

The Snohomish County job fair, like others this year, proved to be light on opportunities. Twenty-five companies were represented, but many weren’t hiring right away. Several were job-resource agencies on the front lines of worker retraining, and one was offering advice on starting businesses.

Fred Meyer was hiring for a new south Snohomish County store. And two Mary Kay cosmetics representatives were on-hand, talking with job seekers about sales opportunities.

“It wasn’t quite what I expected,” one well-dressed job seeker, briefcase in hand, said on his way out.

But Mary Kay representative Joy Stevens made a case for cosmetics sales: Makeup is a counter-cyclical industry, she said. Like with alcohol and tobacco, sales often go up during recessions — a pattern often dubbed “the lipstick factor.”

Stevens often represents Mary Kay at job fairs, and she said she’s noticed a change in who shows up. “People are desperate, and they’re willing to try things they aren’t usually willing to try,” said Stevens. “We’re about as low-pressure as it gets.”

In years past, students have made up a larger part of the job fair’s demographic. That’s not the case now, with unemployment rates in Washington pegged at 9.2 percent in March.

For that same month, about 9.7 percent of workers in Snohomish County were unemployed.

Surprising news came Thursday in a drop in the U.S. Labor Department’s unemployment benefit applications: 631,000 applicants last week, compared with 645,000 the week before.

But you wouldn’t have known about the decrease to talk to perspective job applicants.

“This is a waste of time,” said Mike Poch, an Everett resident who was laid off from a shipping and receiving job six months ago.

Asked if he found the job market frustrating, he eyed the Mary Kay booth, then simply replied: “Yeah.”

Free employment services from EvCC

Students, college alumni and Snohomish County residents can visit www.everettcc.edu/serc to search job postings.

Employers visit campus every Thursday during college quarters from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the colonade of the Parks Student Union Building.

The college hosts three job fairs every year. The next one will be Oct. 8, 2009.