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James Morehead is a 52-year-old machine operator who has worked at one company since 11th grade; Johnny Walker is a Navy veteran with advanced manufacturing experience; Nakeel Rogers is a customer-service worker who has been seeking work for eight months.

They are all us - minus a job.

They joined the hundreds who lined the halls of Four Seasons Town Centre Wednesday to talk with about 20 employers at the Job Expo 2009 sponsored by the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce.

An hour after the expo opened at 10 a.m., the line stretched half the mall's length from center court to the entrance of JCPenney.

Walker was already in line at 9 a.m.

"This is the first time I've ever been laid off," said Walker, 39, who lost his job in the photo department at RF Micro Devices on Jan. 17.

With a nine-year Navy career and 12 years in manufacturing and chemical work, Walker says his spiritual faith and experience will help him make it.

By noon Wednesday, he had already scored a job interview with one of the employers at the fair.

"The early bird gets the worm," he said. "You've definitely got to step up your game."

Gilbarco, Time Warner Cable and EcoLab Kay Chemical Co. drew long lines of people hoping to put their skills to work in advanced manufacturing, customer service and other specialties.

"We expected a lot of people but I don't think we expected a line all the way to JCPenney," said Andrea Miller, director of marketing and communications for the Greensboro Partnership, the chamber's parent.

Kathy Elliott, a 13-year veteran at the partnership, said she has seen job expos where 100 employers set up shop and few prospective workers showed up. To have 20 companies and thousands of employees is a real reversal, she said.

And the employers were being very selective.

The Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation was recruiting.

PART will be hiring 2-3 driver-operators for their bus and van routes that operate throughout the Triad and to Boone and Chapel Hill, said Lisa Chislett, marketing coordinator.

Recruiters can afford to be choosy.

"People that are friendly, and that I can tell they would be customer oriented - I'll keep their resume and keep them in mind," said Chislett.

Morehead is trying to keep a friendly attitude and an open mind, even though he has never worked anywhere but VP Buildings, a Kernersville company that was bought and shut down last year.

"My job (was) pretty physical," he said, "but now that I'm up in age I wouldn't mind a career change."

He's open to retraining and hopes that flexibility will get him the work he needs.

Rogers, 28, enjoys customer service work, especially in call centers, but she's been looking for a good job since July. It's the longest she's ever been out of work.

Competition is so fierce that even several years of experience aren't enough.

"You can have 20 people applying for the same job," she said.

A good impression is key, and David Moff was there to do free critiques of applicants' resumes.

Moff, president and chief executive of The HR Group, stood at a table marking up resume after resume.

Job seekers are even paying people who write particularly low-quality resumes, he said.

So what is the fatal mistake? A misspelled word.

It shows "you don't care about quality, you don't check stuff," Moff said, "and you don't look at (the product) before it goes out."

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com