After Fairfield County”™s long-term unemployed got a second dose of national publicity, a local company is casting the spotlight on those at the other end of the spectrum ”“ the newly unemployed with ink still drying on their diplomas.
In its new offices in Norwalk, a few floors below University of Phoenix classrooms, OperationsInc is launching “Job Search 101” for graduates whose thin resumes are finding their way to the reject pile.
Earlier this year, OperationsInc acquired AllCountyJobs.com, and since has begun publishing monthly assessments of the Fairfield County job market based on activity on its FairfieldCountyJobs.com website. The businesses are now part of a holding company called HRnucleus.
FairfieldCountyJobs.com will be running two job fairs in September in Norwalk, each featuring up to 20 area employers and agencies with a combined 200 jobs to fill, with the fairs to continue monthly.
July”™s job-posting volume was up 2 percent over June, with July typically among the weakest months of the year. What”™s more, this past July was the strongest for any July since 2008, up 26 percent over the same period last year.
Still etched in the memory of OperationsInc CEO David Lewis is the period encompassing the autumn of 2008 into the first half of 2009.
“From the OperationsInc perspective, we went from the company that had 20 to 25 percent of our business in the area of helping our clients hire people; to 20 to 25 percent of our business (in) how to fire people and help train them to find new jobs,” Lewis said. “To have to send these people into a market that was in a complete freefall ”¦ There are people that we know that are still looking.”
That topic was the subject of a “60 Minutes” episode from April that was rerun in August, chronicling the efforts of the Bridgeport-based WorkPlace Inc. and its CEO Joe Carbone to land jobs for those who have exhausted their two years of federal unemployment benefits. The program sparked renewed attention on the issue of tacit job discrimination against older workers or those that have been without work for extended periods. CBS is promising a follow-up on The WorkPlace”™s Platform 2 Employment program in September.
Through five cohorts that took on 100 people, as of July the WorkPlace had helped 69 of them secure jobs through Platform 2 Employment, with a small number dropping out of the program or otherwise turning down interviews or job offers. AARP took note of the program, awarding a sizable grant to further the cause for helping older people find new jobs.
The central premise of Platform 2 Employment remains its feature of corporate donations to support paid “internships” lasting a few months ”“ and the assumption that employers will like what they see enough to offer participants a full-time job.
Over in Norwalk, Lewis is now helping those with little more than internships on their resume ”“ and who have yet to experience the hard knocks that will inevitably unfold as their careers and lives progress.
Of course, nothing curbs boundless enthusiasm quite like checking the email inbox in vain for a response to a cover letter and resume.
“Turnover is at an all-time low in companies,” Lewis said. “You”™ve got to find some grease to inject into this job market.”
