Job Fair

Thousands flocked to the 5th Regiment Armory in Baltimore for a job fair Monday that featured government and private employers but few real job offers. Here are a few participants' views: Emory Proctor, 24, a graduate of Hampton University with a degree in business administration, has a job but is open to a new opportunity: "It's easier to find a job when you have a job. ... Right now, [in] my current position, I do pretty well. As I said, I'm with the financial services division, so, I mean, the people that are trying to invest, I do OK, but it's so rocky and up and down that you never know."

A job fair for prospective Baltimore schoolteachers will be held today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Polytechnic-Western High School complex at 1400 W. Cold Spring Lane.Candidates with teacher certification credentials may interview for specific vacancies and receive conditional contracts to teach. More than 600 certified candidates are expected to attend.

Dorothy Bass fills out a survey at the Senior Expo job fair in Timonium. At the fair yesterday, 2,000 senior citizens sought jobs from representatives of 80 Baltimore-area businesses seeking to tap into a growing workforce. (Article, Page 9B).

At 83, a vibrant Dorothy Bass says she still has a lot to do.Perhaps, Bass says, she will dabble in telemarketing. She might be interested in directing children's activities at a play center. Or maybe she'll work as a school cafeteria lunch lady.After almost seven decades of doing everything from running a grocery to working as a department store clerk, Bass says she's not quite ready to recline and relax in the so-called golden years of her life.Yesterday, she was among the more than 10,000 senior citizens who showed up at Baltimore County's 13th annual Senior Expo at Timonium Fairgrounds, and about 2,000 of them were there for only one thing: a job.They found plenty of opportunities at the expo's first-ever job fair, where 80 Baltimore-area businesses were more than eager to tap into the state's growing work force of senior citizens who just aren't ready to retire and move to Florida.

BALTIMORE City's NAACP chapter has been accused of consorting with -- ugh! -- Republicans, fer crying out loud. Rumor has it that Maryland's Republican Party and the city NAACP will co-sponsor a job fair today at the Marriott Inner Harbor.Well, actually the rumor's been confirmed. The Baltimore branch -- or chapter, or whatever it is the NAACP's local affiliates want to be called -- issued a press release confirming the job fair, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mayor Kurt Schmoke, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and Congressmen Ben Cardin, Wayne Gilchrest, Elijah Cummings and Robert Ehrlich are among the invitees.

Seeking to hire more than 100 people for its new Canton headquarters, adhesives manufacturer DAP Inc. kicked off a two-day job fair yesterday in Baltimore.And, as might be expected in a city that has suffered numerous recent job losses, the job fair drew a large crowd. DAP officials estimated that about 100 people were at the Inner Harbor Hyatt Regency by 2: 15 p.m., 45 minutes before the fair's official opening."We've not done this before," DAP Chief Executive Officer John McLaughlin said of the fair.

For Lex Reprographics and many other companies in the Baltimore area, finding and hiring entry-level employees can be an expensive venture.So in lieu of placing a classified ad, turning to a temp agency or letting the job go unfilled for weeks, the Baltimore copying services company turned to America Works Inc., a New York-based job placement service for welfare recipients.Yesterday, America Works, which opened its Baltimore operation last summer, held a job fair to try to match hundreds of welfare recipients with six companies that have more than 100 openings.

Hundreds of college students traded bulky sweaters and hiking boots for silk blouses and wingtips yesterday, heading to the Central Maryland College Job Fair at Towson State University for a glimpse of the real world.At the university's Towson Center, the fresh-faced students and recent graduates clutched resumes and wandered around a labyrinth of booths representing 135 companies, including Lockheed-Martin, American Express Financial Services, Macy's, Catholic Charities and even the FBI.Some students said they were eager to start earning a living, while others said they were unsure where they were headed, taking little solace in the economy's improvement in the past few years.

About 7,000 people crowded into the club level of Oriole Park at Camden Yards yesterday for the Baltimore Sun Career Fair, an event that brought 71 employers and an array of job-hunting services from the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation into one place.The event, a joint venture between the newspaper and the state, started last year and is now held twice a year, said Karen Stabley, director of new business development for The Sun. The fair is designed as a public service, to give advertisers new ways to reach job seekers and as a way to capture revenue for The Sun.Labor Department spokesman Marco K. Merrick said the organizers had to turn away employers who wanted to set up a booth at the fair, for which they paid $1,200 or more.

Harford County's executive stressed the need to create jobs yesterday in her annual state-of-the-county address -- and noted the creation of two new positions that are intended to foster economic development.About 1,400 new jobs and $211 million in business investment have boosted Harford's economy in the current fiscal year, County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann told the County Council last night.But Harford can attract even more manufacturing and distribution jobs and research and development companies, she said.

An employment fair for seniors in Baltimore County on Thursday drew several hundred job seekers, many of them recently laid off after years with the same company. Most were in their 50s and early 60s, too young for Social Security benefits and still critically in need of work. "I absolutely am looking for a job," said Kathy Metcalf of Catonsville, a human resources worker who was laid off a year ago after 24 years on the job. "I may be an aging baby boomer, but I still have a son in college."

An hour before Thursday morning's job fair at the Baltimore Convention Center, the line to get in was already long, so two women just north of middle age - "mature workers" - pulled a couple of soft chairs away from a coffee table so they could sit during the wait. "You're not allowed to do that," a custodian from the convention center was quick to tell them. "What if you're handicapped?" one of the women said, and the custodian was just as quick to back off. The women made themselves comfortable and started rummaging through the plastic greeting bag everyone received upon arrival at EmploymentGuide.

Thousands flocked to the 5th Regiment Armory in Baltimore for a job fair Monday that featured government and private employers but few real job offers. Here are a few participants' views: Emory Proctor, 24, a graduate of Hampton University with a degree in business administration, has a job but is open to a new opportunity: "It's easier to find a job when you have a job. ... Right now, [in] my current position, I do pretty well. As I said, I'm with the financial services division, so, I mean, the people that are trying to invest, I do OK, but it's so rocky and up and down that you never know."

Jennifer Prosa stood patiently in a line of at least 300 people, with each person waiting just to get inside a job fair Wednesday at the Baltimore Convention Center. "I probably should have gotten here earlier," said the 27-year-old Severn resident as she surveyed the hundreds of hungry job-seekers ahead of her. If there is any telltale sign of growing unemployment woes in this deepening recession, look no further than recent job fairs across the country and in the Baltimore region. Many have drawn thousands of laid-off workers and others in search of limited job openings.

Six Flags holding job fair Saturday Six Flags America is holding its annual job fair Saturday to hire seasonal workers for 1,500 positions at its park in Bowie. The jobs, which begin in March and run through November, are available in rides, foods, games and front gate operations, among various openings. Besides hourly seasonal positions, Six Flags is also offering college internships and limited full-time positions. Visit www.sixflagsjobs.com to start the application process. The job fair is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 13710 Central Ave. in Bowie.

Nazleen Khan was looking for something to keep her busy during summer vacation. At a job fair for teenagers, the Atholton High School sophomore found possible summer employment and volunteer positions. "I came because I needed a summer job, and I was looking around to see what's in the community for volunteer opportunities," she said. This was the first time she had attended the annual fair, an event she heard about at school. "There are a lot of volunteer opportunities, and I'm considering a lot of the programs," Khan said.

Dressed in her U.S. Army fatigues, Trina Smith yesterday visited every booth at a job fair targeting current military members and soon-to-be civilians and offered up a sales pitch two decades in the making. Smith, 49, told recruiter after recruiter that she wasn't a "sit-down type of person" and her 20 years as an Army human resources manager gave her the ideal background for many of the jobs being offered by the 30 companies at the fair. "I've been a soldier for so long, nearly all my life.

What was Erik Allen, the human resources manager for a chain of discount grocery stores, looking for in prospective employees at a job fair in downtown Baltimore yesterday? "They were dressed right," said Allen, of Stop, Shop and Save, as he sat behind his recruiting table. By 11:25 a.m., he had already received more than 50 applications for a handful of jobs at one of the store's eight locations throughout the city. "That's the key. When I say dressed right, I mean a shirt and tie, women in nice outfits.

In the latest mysterious episode of this year's mayoral race, Baltimore officials abruptly canceled a city-sponsored job fair scheduled to take place yesterday after mayoral candidate and City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. attempted to distribute a flier promoting the event. Though the flier included no mention of his candidacy - and would have been distributed by his council office, not his campaign - an official in Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration said he believed that Mitchell was attempting to politicize the job fair and decided to postpone the event until next month.

NATIONAL World Bank leader to resign Paul D. Wolfowitz, the embattled president of the World Bank, announced that he would resign effective June 30, bringing an end to weeks of accusations that he arranged a job transfer and salary increases for his girlfriend. pg 1A GOP, Democrats agree on bill Democratic and Republican senators reached an agreement on legislation that could drastically change the nation's immigration laws and give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship.