A total of 61 area employers turned out for the 2017 Shawano Job Center’s annual career fair, held at The Gathering in Shawano. Employers of all trades were on-hand, from financial institutions and health services, to manufacturing and hospitality.
The event was a great opportunity for job seekers to get to know local businesses that are hiring currently, like Reinhart Foodservice.
“We’re always looking at Reinhart, always,” said representative Chris Nachtwey. Drivers, order selectors, forklift operators, that type of stuff. With the growth that we’re seeing in this company and this community, we’re always looking. We’ve got a number of people coming through, energetic, enthusiastic, and looking for a career.”
Julie Wendt, the HR and Benefits Administrator at Aarowcast, Inc., said she had applicants inquire from all ages.
“[It’s been a] steady flow of applicants,” Wendt said. “Whether they’re high school students who are just kind of interested in learning a little bit more in Aarrowcast, to actually people who are looking for work because we can’t hire anybody under 18. To at least show some interest in Arrowcast already is always a good sign.”
One perspective employer in attendance who will be opening up a new factory in the coming year is Bellmark Inc., a flexible packaging company out of De Pere. Although they weren’t soliciting jobs for the Shawano location just yet, Talent Acquisition Specialist Ka Youa Kong said they’ve been drawing interest already.
“We’ve been getting a lot of phone calls and a lot of emails requesting or inquiring about those openings, but we’ll know more later this year,” Kong said.
Organizer of the job fair, Bill Schmidt, said what makes this job fair special is that there is no fee for businesses to send representative to talk with potential employees. He had also noted there wasn’t a single no-show from businesses for this year’s event.