Fewer employers at packed job fair

Carol Moore dropped out of the corporate world in 2001, but now she'd love to drop back in - if she could find a job.

For the last eight years, she has been a pet-sitter and masseuse, with a steady clientele of dogs and humans.

"Business is down so much," she said. No one can afford a pet sitter - or a massage. "I'm not booking any appointments."

What she'd like to book is an interview, so yesterday Moore joined 4,000 other job seekers at an elbow-to-elbow, resume-to-resume career fair in the Center City Philadelphia Marriott's ballroom.

Sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, the fair attracted just 25 employers, down from about 50 last year - a sign of a diminished job market.

It meant slim pickings for Moore, a former PNC Financial Services Group commission-based investment broker who now wants benefits and a steady salaried job in financial operations.

"Right now, I'm using my 401(k) money to make ends meet," said Moore, who lives in East Norriton Township. "But I can't keep doing that."

Moore's job hunt comes as the region's unemployment rate climbed to 8.1 percent as of the end of March from 4.9 percent a year ago. In a year, area employers shed 77,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.

Still, some employers at the fair did have a few openings.

Susan Highsmith, a recruiter for JEVS Human Services, a social-services agency in Philadelphia, was accepting resumes for drug and alcohol counselors, quality-assurance auditors, and case managers - about 15 to 20 positions.

"I've talked to so many people that I'm starting to lose my voice," Highsmith said.

"A lot of people have excellent backgrounds and have been out of [work] for more than six months," she said.

"It's overwhelming."

Good word. At one point, so many applicants showed up they had to line up outside the ballroom until others left.

Inside, the recruiters included Melanie Hernandez of Philadelphia Gas Works, who handed out souvenirs and told people about two openings, for an accounting assistant and a senior technician.

Another employer, Rowland Printing of Phoenixville, sought a database manager and sales help.

Among the job candidates, lawyers and financial consultants waited in line for 45 minutes for a chance to shake hands with recruiters from the Internal Revenue Service looking for tax officers.

Among them was lawyer Milton Velez, of Philadelphia's Somerton section, who lost his job in the managing director's office when the Nutter administration took office in January 2008.

"I tell people that I had a job before I started with the city, and I will have one after. I just didn't think it would take this long," Velez said.

"The law field is contracting greatly. Law firms are losing customers, and a lot of companies are bringing their business in-house," he said. "I'm too expensive to be the new guy, and I'm still trying not to start at the beginning."

This year, for the first time, colleges and training schools were asked to set up booths at the job fair - not to recruit employees for themselves, but to attract students.

The chamber's message: People who are out of work may want training, said spokeswoman Linda Brooke.

The job fair also included sessions on green jobs, "hot" jobs, and life-science jobs.

Besides the chamber, Monster.com, in conjunction with Philly.com, co-sponsored the jobs fair. Philly.com is a division of Philadelphia Media Holdings Inc., the publisher of The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.