Media Center

Published April 24, 2015
By Elizabeth Montgomery
Clayton News Daily 

More than 15,000 people lined up in the Georgia International Convention Center with the hope of leaving with a job.

The annual jobs fair was started by Congressman David Scott 12 years ago. Friday’s event saw 70 employers including Georgia Power, Allied Barton Security, Clayton County Public Schools, Kroger, Emory and U.S. Foods looking to fill 5,522 jobs.

“If people would have told me a long time ago, what I know now —” said Sondra Rush, who arrived to the center an hour before the doors opened.

Rush was recently separated from her job at American Cyber Systems. She is looking for new employment.

“The job I had was sent to India, a lot of jobs are being outsourced” she said. “But the key is to find a job that’s going to look for you. Our generation, we have to depend on ourselves.”

Scott says you can depend on him and his partners, Camila Knowles of Georgia Department of Community Affairs and Leslie Wiggins, medical center director at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs who provided employment, health and benefits resources for veterans at the job fair.

We are making a special effort to reach veterans,” said Scott, who has also been an advocate for getting mortgage relief into the community. Through his efforts, the House and Senate have passed bills that give homeowners mortgage payment assistance.

Representatives from Home Safe Georgia, a federally funded mortgage payment assistance program, attended the job fair to deliver mortgage assistance to homeowners facing unemployment.

“People are struggling with mortgage payments, and we need to help that struggling homeowner,” said Knowles. “We have $140 million left and if we don’t get this out within 20 months it goes back to the treasurer.”

Knowles said 6,500 families across the state have taken advantage of the assistance.

Many job-seekers left Friday’s event with more than what they expected.

"Job fairs are like kryptonite for chefs,” said applicant Jeffery Moody. Moody has been a chef for 15 years and walked out of the job fair with an interview. “I have a cooking demo with Gate Gourmet next week,” he said.