Chamber plans job fair for Aug. 3
More than 30 Anderson County employers will be on hand to take applications for hundreds of jobs they have open on Tuesday, Aug. 3, during a job fair at Anderson County High School.
The event, sponsored by the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce, will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. in the parking lot of the high school, at 130 Maverick Circle, off North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard, said chamber spokesman Jared Forgety.
“This job fair is open to any employer, not just chamber members, and we already have over 30 signed up so far,” he said Monday.
“While I haven’t been given a count, I believe it’s safe to say they will be taking applications for hundreds of open positions,” Forgety said. “All of the major employers in Anderson County will be there.”
According to the chamber website, “This one-day event allows job seekers to connect face-to-face with local businesses and industries seeking employees.”
There is no charge for the vendors looking for employers, or for people to come to fill out applications for jobs, the chamber posting notes.
The employers will provide their own tents, tables and chairs for the event, Forgety said. No electric power is available at the site, so the event will be held entirely during daylight hours.
The chamber held a similar event at the Anderson County Fairgrounds last September, in which 24 employers – businesses and industries – offered more than 600 available jobs. Turnout was low, however, which is something the chamber hopes to change with this new event.
Job recruiting has been a problem of late, especially since the pandemic struck early last year. That’s in part because of lucrative federal supplementary unemployment benefits that, for a while, helped to pay people up to $875 a week – tax free – to stay at home.
The extra federal payments were ended as of July 1, so employers are hoping that many who had been receiving those benefits might now be ready to come back to work.
“With the unemployment benefits, it has been hard to find workers,” Amanda Moles, human resources director for the Formall Inc. manufacturing plant on Lake City Highway, said during last September’s event. “The job fairs have been slow.”
For those who can’t make it to the job fair on Tuesday, there will still be opportunities to apply for work.
The Chamber of Commerce lists many of the open positions on its job board on its website, andersoncountychamber.org/jobs.