Allentown Job-Seekers Not So Optimistic

Earlier on in the week, the Pennsylvania Career Link of Lehigh Valley was set to open up the doors for its annual job fair, which took place on Wednesday morning. Before the doors were even opened, there were already 200 people in line waiting around to get into the job fair, hoping to find the employment that they have been seeking for quite some time now. The Chamber of Commerce President for the Greater Lehigh Valley area, Tony Iannelli, has said, “These are people looking for employment and in this room is hope.” There were approximately 85 employers that attended the job fair, offering a total of 3,900 jobs. And, at the same time, there were a total of 3,909 individuals who ended up attending the job fair, which was definitely an increase from the previous year. Even so, a number of the job-seekers did not feel very optimistic about finding employment.

One resident of Long Pond, Mike DeDonato, is currently looking for a position that he can keep on a full-time basis. He also wants a position that is going to offer him the type of benefits that he needs. He currently has skills with electronics and also happens to be a veteran of the United States Army, having served two separate tours in Iraq. Even so, he has been struggling to find employment and needs to find something soon, especially since his wife is pregnant and will be having their baby in a short period of time. DeDonato has even said that he would be willing to move to a different area if it means that he would have secured employment. He has said, “There’s nothing permanent with benefits that is long term.”
Gloria Beidler, on the other hand, recently lost a job at the JC Penney warehouse in April. The company chose to move its operations to the state of Connecticut. Beidler, who happens to be 57-years-old, has been the primary breadwinner in her home and her husband has been out of work for quite a while so she is the one bringing home the income. She decided to attend the fair so that she could speak with employers face to face instead of behind a computer screen. However, she felt a bit troubled when several of the representatives for different companies advised her to fill out online applications. Biedler said, “I have been looking for a job for the last five months, you come here to this job fair and they tell you to go back on the Internet.”