Job Fair Searching For Potential Workers

By Richard Clark and Scott Thompson, News On 6

TULSA, OK -- A lot of people are having a hard time finding work in the economy. But many companies in Tulsa are looking for employees right now.

Instead of waiting for prospective workers to come to them, they took their search to the prospective employees, in the form of a job fair in East Tulsa on Thursday.

"I have 25 years experience in warehouse work," said Tom Bants.

Bants was laid off two weeks ago, but he thinks he has a good chance of finding a new job quickly, thanks to this job fair.

"Yeah, I think so.  It's been, it's been kind of rough but I think today it's been pretty good," said Bants.

"I'm everywhere around the Midwest part of the country, and, uh, Chicago is a little bit different right now, I mean, there's people. I had a job fair there not too long ago and people everywhere were trying to get work," said Allen Hardesty of HydroChem Industrial Services. 

As a recruiter for an industrial cleaning company, he says the turn-out at this job fair was a little lower than most.  That may be because Tulsa's unemployment rate is so much lower than the rest of the country's.

"I think people are feeling the slide coming a little bit, and we're seeing more people in the marketplace, but we've really been somewhat protected from that.  And we've got great companies, great industries, a great mix of business here that can really sustain, I think, through some of these hard times," said Darcy Melendez of Workforce Tulsa.

And this job fair proves that many of those businesses are not just surviving, but are actually looking to add workers.  And thanks to the fair, two veterans may have found new positions.

"I appreciate those guys and what they've done for us.  So I'll certainly put them at the top of the list, and in fact I think I'm going to hire, or offer a couple of jobs," said Hardesty.

Oklahoma's unemployment rate has been hovering around 4%. It has climbed in the last month, but experts say anything 5% is considered full employment.