Hundreds Flock to Area Job Fair

Linda Palmisano has been self-employed for four years in the home health care field.

The 42-year-old McHenry mother decided Wednesday that is is time for her to look for a new certified nurse’s assistant position. Palmisano started her search at the McHenry County College Fall Job Fair — held from noon to 3 p.m. Wednesday in MCC's gymnasium. 

“I’m hoping to find something immediately,” Palmisano said. “I received my 2005 CNA license here at MCC and to stay certified I need to keep working in the field.”

Dr. Flecia Thomas, dean of student services at MCC, said organizers anticipated 300 to 500 attendees at the fall job fair. 

MCC, located at 8900 U.S. Highway 14 in Crystal Lake, typically hosts one fair every year. However, to help students, the school already held a similar employment-search event earlier this year. The job fairs are sponsored by MCC’s Career Services Department and open to students and the community.

“We have 19 employers here today with full and part-time job opportunities,” Thomas said Wednesday. 

Representatives from participating companies packed tables with informational fliers, business cards and additional information. Prospective job seekers of all ages — some dressed in business suits and others in casual attire — shared resumes and seized the opportunity to talk face-to-face with the company personnel.

Participating Companies at the MCC Job Fair

Companies at the fair included: Northwestern Mutual, Volt Workforce Solutions, Springs at Crystal Lake, Fountains at Crystal Lake, Centegra Health Care Systems, Manpower, ROSS Dress for Less, CenCom E9-1-1 Public Safety Communications and Home Instead Senior Care.

Koryne Master, marketing coordinator for the Kratochvil Group for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, 282 Memorial Ct., Crystal Lake, said her firm joined the job fair to fill two full-time sales and three internship positions.

“Since we’re right here in Crystal Lake, we thought this would be a great opportunity to get people from our local community,” Master said.

Christine Bell, branch manager for Manpower in Elgin, said her job placement company has a long list of job opportunities and another long list of job seekers.

“We’re finding we have a mismatch between our jobs and the job seekers,” Bell said. “We are here looking to recruit people for the open positions we have. We’re hoping to find some people to fill the gaps.”

Bell, who has a pulse on the employment market, said her company is seeing a growing need for skilled industrial workers, such as CNC lathe programmers.

“For most of the manufacturing companies that is a real hot commodity,” Bell said. “I think maybe some people in that field may be reaching retirement age. I know MCC has a program for CNC.”

Bell said she also is seeing more higher-end positions opening up for engineers and IT workers. On the positive side, many job seekers are already employed but are looking to improve their status, or move up the ladder.

Unemployment Rates For McHenry County

The McHenry County Labor Report for Fall 2011 lists the unemployment rate for McHenry County at 8.8 percent for the month of August 2011 (the most recent available). That figure is slightly lower than national and state unemployment rates.

According to the report, the national unemployment rate was 9.1 percent in August; and Illinois’ unemployment rate was 9.9 percent. McHenry County’s unemployment statistics were slightly better than Lake and Kane counties, which were 9.0 and 9.9 percent respectively.

The fields hardest hit in McHenry County included construction, retail trade, government positions and manufacturing, according to the report. Some of the fast-growing industries for the year included temporary help services, employment placement agencies, general purpose machinery manufacturing and warehouse and supercenter stores, the report said.

From The Top 25 Skills in Demand list, according to labor sources in the county, employers are searching for workers with experience in sales, marketing, mathematics, retail sales and scheduling.