Job fair attracts local workers
CODY THORN/DAILY FORUM
Maryville resident Matthew Smith looks at information from Deluxe Corporation during a job fair on Wednesday held at the Maryville Community Center.
Nearly a dozen businesses and a handful of schools attended the Maryville Industries Hiring Job Fair on Wednesday afternoon at the Maryville Community Center.
People seeking employment had a chance to talk to local manufacturers to see if there was mutual interest.
The Missouri Job Center and Nodaway County Economic Development partnered in hosting the event.
Employers present included Deluxe Corp., Federal-Mogul Corp., Laclede Chain Mfg., Kawasaki Motors, Metal Culverts Inc. and the City of Maryville.
Also on hand were Exide Technologies from Forest City, Johnson Controls from Albany, J.L. Houston Co. from Hopkins, and NSK-AKS Precision Ball Co. and Advance Services, both based in Clarinda, Iowa.
“A lot of our plants are looking for additional folks, and we haven’t done a job fair like this for a couple of years,” NCED execsutive director Josh McKim said. “We thought it would be a good time to try it again and see if there is interest in the workforce and try to connect people. Hopefully people find it useful and the businesses find it useful.”
McKim said manufacturing jobs make up 20 to 25 percent of the area workforce.
“We have a lot of avenues we like to go after, and we like to stay local,” said Jake Matheny, assistant manager of assembly of Kawasaki. “Mostly with our production department, it is nice to see local people. This is just another avenue to venture out to.”
During the opening 30 minutes of the event, Kawasaki representatives talked to nearly a dozen people who expressed interest in applying for some of the factory’s open positions.
One of the those was Matthew Smith, a Maryville native looking for a new job — a manufacturing position with employment stability.
He learned of the job fair through the Missouri Job Center.
“It is very nice they do it,” Smith said. “St. Joe and Kansas City do this, so it is about time to do it here.”
Smith brought his resume with him, as did many other job seekers, some dressed in traditional interview attire and some wearing more casual clothes.
Smith said he wanted to meet with human resource directors to help them put a face with a name.
While many of the booths were set up by manufacturers, other tables included school representatives seeking to convince job seekers to continue their education.
Learning organizations in attendance included Northwest Technical School, Maryville Adult Education and North Central Missouri College, a two-year school located in Trenton.