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Area employers struggling to fill positions attend YMCA job fair

Photo by Jody Isaackson Brian Novotny of Lynd stopped by the ADM booth at the job fair held at the Marshall YMCA Monday. Novotny visited with recruiter Kayla Uphus, who was encouraging him to submit an application for employment

MARSHALL — With the unemployment rate in the Marshall area hovering around 2 percent, some area employers are struggling to fill open positions.

Marshall Chamber Executive Director Cal Brink said Monday that the unemployment rate has been at 1.9 percent for a few months now.

Marshall Public Schools Human Resource Director Gwen Johnson represents one of Marshall’s larger employers and set up a booth at the YMCA job fair held Monday.

“We’re looking for certified and non-certified teaching substitutes,” Johnson said. She set up a Tiger-dominant display for the fair.

“The re-designed variance program could make it easier than you think to re-enter the teaching field.”

Johnson also said that even though in past years there had been hundreds of applications for one opening, their most recent job posting received only about 10 applications for four elementary positions, Johnson said.

Marshall Public Schools joined about a dozen businesses accepting resumes at the fair.

“This is the first job fair I’ve been able to put together since I got here,” YMCA employee Matt O’Neal said. He was manning the host table. “We invited the whole community and let other businesses know we support them as well.”

ADM’s recruiter Kayla Uphus was visiting with job hunter Brian Novotny of Lynd. Uphus was happy to consider Novotny for a position with her company.

Other tables such as United Community Action Partnership also had some visitors. Human Resources Director Laura Jones said that this time of year, they were looking for bus drivers.

“In the fall, we’ll be looking for Head Start teachers and assistant teachers,” Jones said.

Some recruiters were offering positions that didn’t need certification or opportunities for training and/or new variance programs such as Avera and Marshall Public Schools.

“For positions such as dietary and housekeeping, applicants don’t even need experience,” recruiter Michelle Person said. Other positions she was offering were CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) and nursing.

“I love it that we have a job fair in Marshall,” Person said. “We’ve needed one for quite a while.”

Staffing Solutions’ branch manager Shannon Sweetman also had a table.

“We assist businesses from Pipestone to Sacred Heart, from Wabasso to Cottonwood,” Sweetman said. “It’s an extensive territory. Right now, the big need is for light industrial positions such as machine operators and assembly.”

While Staffing Solutions’ main goal is to place employees with employers permanently, they also help college students find summer jobs, Sweetman said.

Other tables on hand for this job fair included Schwan’s Home Service (plant workers, route representative), Vishay (manufactures medical devices), Taher (school food service), REM (direct care staff, program supervisor), TruBridge (patient billing call center) and US Bank (entry level positions in collections and customer service).

“We didn’t expect too big a turnout for the first one,” O’Neal said. “It was a test run, good for exposure. Maybe next year it’ll have a bigger turnout. We’ll do more marketing.”

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