2,000 turn out for Idaho Falls job fair 

Perhaps nothing more vividly illustrated the anguish of the deepening recession than the more than 2,000 people who lined up outside the Eastern Idaho Technical College in Idaho Falls on June 10, in hopes of getting hired at the Idaho National Laboratory.

Some of them traveled from as far as Wisconsin, Colorado, California, Washington and Oregon to submit resumes to INL contractors and subcontractors, waiting as long as half an hour in sporadic rain. Inside, heat and humidity steadily climbed as the well-dressed applicants crowded an EITC cafeteria to meet with recruiters.

The Idaho Department of Labor, EITC, Partners for Prosperity and the Regional Economic Innovation Team sponsored the information and job fair as INL and its contractors anticipate using federal stimulus money for accelerated waste cleanup and other projects.

Participating vendors included CH2M-Washington Group Idaho, Battelle Energy Alliance, Bechtel Bettis Inc. and subcontractors Red Inc., Northwind, Executive Training Resources, Portage, Barton, Ascendant, Pole Star and BSI.

Engineers John Clay and Victor Kellie left Boise at about 10:30 a.m. that day and arrived in Idaho Falls about four hours later. Clay has been unemployed for four months. Kellie has been without work since October. Both have wives and children.

“We were expecting more of an engineering crowd, not a free-for-all,” Kellie remarked upon seeing the hundreds of job seekers. “It’s tough all over.”

Both agree it’s getting extremely difficult to find even part-time work in the Treasure Valley, where Micron Technology and Hewlett-Packard have been “hemorrhaging” jobs and the unemployment rate hit 9.6 percent in May, higher than the national average and the highest of 10 regions in Idaho.

“It’s becoming very fundamental. When you have engineers working for nothing and that’s all that’s available, that’s a bad economy,” Clay said. “Nobody wants to hire an engineer for a lower level job and then know they will leave,” Kellie added. “Millions of us are looking for jobs.”

Noting he has been through three or four recessions, Wade Virgin, manager of the Idaho Department of Labor’s Idaho Falls office, said what has struck him about this downturn is the high number of skilled, highly trained professionals and college graduates who are 40 and older now thrown out of work, including scientists and engineers.

Two years ago, Idaho Falls had the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 2.3 percent. Now, it stands at 5.5 percent. Building contractors and auto dealerships, including sales people and mechanics, have been hardest hit in Bonneville County, Virgin said. He’s now seeing highly skilled managers applying for long-haul trucking jobs.

“My advice to everyone looking for a job is that it’s as much work as working a job. So many sit back and wait,” he said, adding that he has noticed banks and mortgage companies more forgiving as they recognize the extent people are struggling. “I encourage people not to lose hope. All recessions end.”

As she was leaving the fair, a middle-aged Idaho Falls woman said she attended it on behalf of her son who holds an MBA but was not able to get away from his job that day at a fast-food hamburger restaurant. 

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