Job fair brings opportunities to Butler County
Published 10:19 am Tuesday, October 4, 2022
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Lurleen B. Wallace Community College in Greenville hosted and co-sponsored a job fair, Sept. 28 in the Wendell Mitchell Center.
Southeast AlabamaWorks, the Butler County Commission for Economic Development, and the Greenville Chamber of Commerce also served as sponsors for the event.
Southeast AlabamaWorks has partnered with Butler County and the City of Greenville to help businesses to find people and people to find jobs.
“We appreciate so much those businesses and agencies that came out to participate,” said Kathy Smyth, of Southeast AlabamaWorks. “We keep trying to see what works.”
While unemployment rates are at an all time low in Alabama, businesses still need to hire employees.
Over 20 businesses and industries participated in the Job Fair; from food companies to industrial opportunities, and even the armed forces. There were options for every interest and every level of experience.
“We help new businesses with their move into our area and we help existing businesses with their expansion projects,” said Crystal Nimmer, with the Butler County Commission for Economic Development.
The commission works closely with the City of Greenville and the Chamber of Commerce to help businesses and industries feel at home in the area.
“We also help with the tax incentives,” Nimmer said. “That gives a business a chance to get started and helps companies that are already thriving to expand or purchase new equipment.”
Tracy Salter, Executive Director of the Greenville Area Chamber of Commerce, said the Chamber saw the need from our employers who have current job openings and from those in our community who are looking for job opportunities.
“Kathy Smyth and David Hutchison spearheaded this event and the Chamber just jumped on this to help out,” Salter said. “The cool thing about today, in my opinion, is these places have current job openings available right now, and they’re ready to speak to job seekers on the spot … The opportunities are endless.”
Stacey Jernigan, with the Alabama Department of Public Health, demonstrated their website and talked about the job opportunities available with the state.
“Just go to www.personel.alabama.gov,” she said. “It’s a very helpful website. Go there and click on the careers tab, go to job announcements, and it will pull up whatever jobs are available … You can create an account and apply for a state job. The state hires for the Department of Human Resources, the Health Department, corrections, vocational rehab, the Department of Transportation, and many more state jobs.”
Jernigan said state employees get 13 paid holidays a year, have an excellent retirement system, and have recently received a cost of living raise.
Other organizations seeking employees included the Butler County District Attorney’s Office, the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, the Greenville Police Department, the Greenville Fire Department, Crown Health Care, and Country Place Senior Living.
“We feel like we had a good number of follow-up hires,” Smyth said. “There was such a great variety of business out today. It was a really good cross section for people looking for good paying jobs in our area.”
