(Host) A career expo in Bennington on Thursday drew a couple hundred job seekers to the town’s Southwestern Career Development Center.
The Bennington area has been hit hard with job losses. But local officials say prospects have recently been improving.
VPR’s Susan Keese reports.
(Keese) Wendy Morse of the Vermont Department of Labor says she recently identified 500 jobs within a 25 mile radius of Bennington.
(Morse) "They’re out there if you really need to find a job. You may have to look beyond a five mile radius and really look 25 mile radius but certainly jobs are out there."
(Keese) Morse says that almost all of the 15 employers who set up tables are hiring right now.
(Morse) "Bennington‘s unemployment rate has actually gone down. It came down six points in August, it was seven-point six and now it’s seven- point-O. So we’re still a little bit higher than the state, but certainly we’re going in the right direction."
(Keese) One of the busiest tables was operated by Plasan. The fast-growing Israeli company moved to Bennington three years ago hoping to compete for US military jobs. Now it’s part of a billion dollar contract to make armored vehicles for Afghanistan. The company has been hiring steadily.
Also doing a brisk business was the Stratton Mountain Resort. At this time of year its payroll expands from about 300 employees to 1400.
Stratton job recruiter Tony Rosinski says the resort has benefited from the economic downturn.
(Rosinski) "College graduates who aren’t able to find a position in what they majored in are coming to us for the winter. That’s a new group that ski resorts and hospitality are tending to attract."
(Keese) Rosinski says another group the resort is seeing more of are retirees looking to supplement their incomes.
Mary Hubble plans to take advantage of the Career Development Center’s many adult course offerings. Her longtime job in a medical office was cut last winter.
(Hubble) "The medical field’s pretty specific so I need to get some more education for general office skills, computer programs."
(Keese) The expo is held twice a year. Organizers say this one was the best attended ever.
For VPR News, I’m Susan Keese.