Thousands Converge on Jackson Trade Mart in Search of Jobs

Mississippi Employment Expo, Mississippi Trade Mart in Jackson

A weak economy and high unemployment rates bring thousands of job seekers to the Mississippi Employment Expo. MPB's Lawayne Childrey reports how this could be the most important year yet for the event.

With Layoffs occurring across the state the Mississippi employment expo offered hope for thousands of residents. Joe Buckner is the Director of the Governors Job Fair Network.

“The unemployment rate is 9.2 for our state and people have been laid off and people are worried about the economy and they’re needing a way to pay to provide food for their families and pay their electric bills and credit cards. And so a lot of people are desperately looking for that opportunity to go to work and this is a good, good opportunity here.”

more than three thousand people lined up early at the Trade Mart in Jackson in hopes of finding a job. After 13 years Vince Walker of West point watched some great paying jobs slip through his fingers.

“A lot of the companies like Bryan Foods they went out of business. Then ah, the place I worked at was Flexible Flyer. We lost a lot of contracts that we had big contracts with Wal-Mart ‘cause we made toys. And when you lose contracts you lose business and the company couldn’t maintain. That was kind of a rough blow.”

Walker then moved to Jackson, only to face more of the same.

“No real jobs, I ran across a couple of jobs with the staffing companies but they don’t pay what you worth no way. A lot of the companies here in Jackson are with the staffing companies because they don’t have to worry about paying insurance. They don’t have to worry ‘bout paying unemployment and all of that.”

The governors job fair network has similar events scheduled throughout the state this spring. For MPB News, I'm Lawayne Childrey.