KERNERSVILLE
The volume of phone calls this week made it tough for staff members at the Kernersville Chamber of Commerce to make last-minute preparations for yesterday's job fair.
"We tried to get someone to come in and answer the phone for a few hours" on Monday, staff member Mary Kay Csanyi said.
She estimated that more than 100 calls came in -- even some from out of state.
Yesterday afternoon, about 1,000 people showed up for the job fair at First Christian Church, up from about 400 a year ago.
While the crowd of job-hunters was bigger, the pool of employers was smaller, and the number of professionals offering career advice was up. About 20 prospective employers and seven job-search professionals booked or shared tables at the fair.
The line of job-hunters snaked around the walls of the church's lobby as people waited their turn to enter.
The age range of the job-hunters varied, but many appeared to be older workers, carrying old-style attache cases.
Wendell Pickett, a Kernersville resident, came to the fair looking for industrial or manufacturing work. He was laid off from his job making furniture after 27 years in the business.
"I don't know if my company is even going to make it. I want to get out of furniture," he said.
In his job searches, including talking to recruiters yesterday, Pickett said he has found more prospective sales positions than manufacturing jobs. However, because of his past work experience, he feels that he needs to focus his search on manufacturing.
"I'll just keep looking," he said. "I'll find something."
Laura Baker attended the job fair in hopes of finding part-time work. She had worked at a bank and retired to help her husband with their plumbing business. As their business slacked off with the economic downturn, Baker decided to find a part-time job "to help make ends meet." Working part time will allow her to continue helping her self-employed husband, she said.
While the fair offered participants the chance to talk to employers, it also offered seminars on what to do and say while one was looking for work.
"Resume Writing & Design" offered by Elaine Wilder of Wilder Career Services and "Out-Placement and Transition Coaching" offered by Jim Collier of The HR Group were the most popular, chamber officials said.
Free use of a copier was also available for job-hunters who ran out of resumes or recruiters who ran out of handouts.
Stacy Hilton, the sales manager of WTHZ-FM radio, set up her table at the job fair in hopes of finding one or two people to hire as sales representatives.
"There is a lot of need for advertising positions right now," Hilton said. "I assumed a good number of people would be attending this, given the economic condition."
The Kernersville job fair was the second job fair of the day for Scott Crump of Colfax, a displaced graphic arts and printing specialist.
"At first my job search was for any type of job in my field," Crump said. "Now anything that is a good fit is what I'm looking for. I'm looking for anything promising."
■ Monica Young can be reached at cyoung9@triad.rr.com.
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