A brutal job market has been surprisingly productive for Tiffany Price, who makes a living off employers who can’t find workers.
“Everyone here is struggling to find people,’’ Price said from the floor of the job fair she organized recently in West Palm Beach, where more than two-dozen companies paid about $850 each to set up hiring tables and pitch their jobs to some 3,800 attendees. “There are definitely jobs out there.”
Price’s busy days in the help-wanted industry as the sales manager at the Fort Lauderdale office for Job News USA capture both the promise and the many soft spots of South Florida’s modest hiring recovery. Employment numbers released Friday found out sluggish job expansion in Broward and Miami-Dade, along with indicators that staff are leaving the labor power quicker than employers are hiring.
Both counties’ unemployment rates did improve in August, but only because fewer people were looking for work.
Broward’s drop from 8.1 percent in July to 7.8 percent in August and Miami-Dade’s from 9.5 percent to 9.2 percent both came despite a drop in people describing themselves in government surveys as “employed.’’
In Miami-Dade, Florida’s greatest local economy, the collection of employed people dropped by means of five,000 but the exertions power itself dropped through 10,000. That allowed Miami-Dade’s unemployment fee to dip despite the fact that employment itself dropped, too.
Statewide, Florida’s jobless rate followed a similar trend: the unemployment rate stalled at 8.8 percent, but improvement came thanks to a shrinking labor force rather than a growth in employment.
A shrinking labor force often gets explained as a sign of the jobless giving up hope they can find work, and the line spilling into the parking lot for the Job News fair hardly looked encouraging for attendees.
So many activity seekers arrived that price needed to play bouncer on the hotel ballroom the place it was held, permitting five people inside for each 10 people who left. “We had somewhat complaint from the fire marshal,’’ she stated.
The crush of hopefuls at the West Palm Beach Marriott reflected a job market with more than double the number of unemployed people than five years ago, in the run-up to the recession. Friday’s report recorded 196,000 people as officially unemployed in Broward and Miami-Dade, with Palm Beach County adding another 59,000.
That’s far fewer than the peak in 2010 and 2011 of about 323,000 unemployed workers for the tri-county area.
Sean Sweet counted himself in the jobless category, and found no encouragement from the 28 tables of employers renting space at the fair. The 38-12 months-vintage pharmacist misplaced his task originally of the summer in a downsizing move, and now he’s volunteering his time helping with medication at shelters for the poor. He arrived on the truthful with little hope of finding a place in his field, and stated he also struck out on the lookout for an access-degree activity to pay his bills.
“They look at my résumé and they say, ‘Doctorate? ‘Master’s?’ Here you go,’ ’’ Sweet said, mimicking an employer handing back his résumé. “It shows you what’s happening with the economy if you go from making $120,000 a year to nothing.’’
Sweet bumped into an issue confronted by means of a number of the not too long ago unemployed: even supposing they’re willing to take low-paying jobs, employers is also looking for any individual else.
“We’re constantly hiring,’’ said Marissa McLean, recruiting manager for the Check Cashing Store, which offered candy bars, can insulators and mint trays at its Job News table. “It’s harder than you might think.”
For $9.50-an-hour jobs as Check Cashing clerks, McLean looks for past cashier experience and an ability to up-sell customers to the chain’s credit cards and other offerings. “I’m seeing teachers. I’m seeing truckers. I’m seeing plumbers,’’ she said of the chain’s applicants during the downturn. “That’s not what I’m looking for.”
For Price, 29, the job fairs she manages roughly every month throughout South Florida show that work is available, even if the paychecks aren’t ideal. The married mother of a 2-year-vintage is brutally positive concerning the hiring market, pronouncing she will discover a place for any person keen to pursue it. and he or she sees folks getting discouraged too temporarily, especially after they strike out at a task news fair.
“People get so exasperated,’’ she said. Asked what advice she would give to someone out of work for an extended period of time, Price responds: “Everyone has a friend of a friend of a friend. You need to network and use the resources you have. Even if it’s a cashier at Publix. Ask, ‘Are you guys hiring here?’ ’’
“Be nice to everybody,’’ she added. “You never know who might be able help you. You never know where the conversation might lead.”
value came to task information in 2005 from her vintage place coping with a telemarketing operation in Davie, promoting sun-powered pool heaters to homeowners over the phone. worth could run advertisements within the job news circulars for workforce rather than turning to local newspapers — in spite of their better movement.
It was the start of the housing boom in the early 2000s, when unemployment was around 5 percent. “If you were picking up anything but the paper to find a job at that time, it meant you were hungry,’’ Price recalled. “Because all you had to do was pick up the newspaper to find a job.”
Eventually, she jumped ship to activity information itself as a sales consultant, that means she cold-known as businesses in hopes of marketing assist-wanted commercials. income were excellent till the recession hit in 2008. by way of 2009, value was oncen’t making enough so she quit and went to culinary faculty. After a temporary stint as a personal chef, worth headed again to process information in 2010, just as hiring used to be rebounding in the region.
Despite record unemployment, Price said demand for job fairs has been strong enough that she’s constantly looking for venues with more space for tables. A July federal report found employers actually should be finding it harder to fill positions than at any time during the downturn and recovery, with 3.5 unemployed people for every job opening nationwide, down from 6.2 unemployed people for every opening in June 2009.
price stated she handiest seeing call for increase from her shoppers. an even set for Oct. 17 in Davie’s Signature Grand is on the right track to rent a record 60 tables, value mentioned, without much push from the job news sales staff.
“If you’re willing to take something out of your field, you’re going to find a job,’’ she said. “They might not be able to find what they’re looking for. But there are opportunities.”