Town of Hempstead job fair draws crowd of over 3,000

By nICOLe FORMIsAnO nformisano@liherald.com

HempsteadWorks recently held a job fair, which was described as the most successful to date — with more than 80 businesses participating, 3,000 people attending and hundreds of applications being filled out.

The April 20 event drew a line of business-clad hopefuls that stretched out the door of the Freeport Recreation Center, down the sidewalk and around the corner. While last September’s job fair produced 1,500 people seeking employment, last week’s fair saw more than double those numbers. Hempstead-

Works runs a job fair in the spring and fall of each year.

“It’s so people can have a better quality of life, for employment, so they can support their families and strengthen the economy,” Eric Mallette, commissioner of the Town of Hempstead’s Occupational Resources, said. “And also to give back to the community if they have gainful employment. And a lot of employers are looking for employees. We’ve been pretty successful in helping them.”

The more than 80 businesses featured opportunities from nearly every feasible field — retail, health care, education, security, banking, hospitality and more.

“We want to make sure that there’s a diverse group of businesses and industries available to everyone,” Kurt Rockensies, the town’s deputy commissioner, said. “We try to get every industry possible to participate.”

Jeffrey Johnson, program director of Urban Seniors Jobs Program, with the Urban League of Westchester County Inc., noted that job fairs have been the source of plenty of success for his company. Many of their hires came directly from job fair applications.

“We come as often as we can,” Johnson said. “Hempstead -

Works does a great job of getting the word out to the public. Our recruiting efforts have been very successful due to this kind of job fair.”

Would-be employees worked their way through the crowded gymnasium, booth by booth. People of all skill sets, experience levels and backgrounds — from recent high school gradu- ates in death metal T-shirts to seniors in three-piece suits — sought an employment match.

“I’m a pandemic graduate, so I wasn’t able to gain a lot of the experience that people wanted from me,” Shannon Roth, 25, an information technology specialist, said. “It’s a very difficult field right now. I’m still pushing

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