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GREENSBORO — Bob Harrington, an executive with a long record of supervisory jobs, talked about the competitive job market.

“It’s brutal,” said Harrington, who has been seeking permanent employment since his job at Skybus disappeared last year when the company went bankrupt. “It’s on all levels — entry level on up to professional.”

Harrington had just polished his resume Wednesday at the HR Group kiosk in Four Seasons Town Centre at the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce’s annual job fair.

Harrington is lucky in a way, having worked most of the past year in two temporary-placement jobs. He’s hoping he’ll end up with a permanent job after making connections.

These days, he may just as likely find his job online as he will in person. More companies are connecting with prospective workers over the Internet, and that has changed the number of recruiters and the types of people who look for jobs at expos like the one Wednesday.

As a result, some employers with job openings don’t bother to attend such events. They put up an Internet notice and the resumes come pouring in, chamber President Rob Clapper said.

“Job expos have to be more creative,” he said.

The expo Wednesday featured about 40 exhibitors, roughly 5 percent fewer than last year’s event. Several hundred job seekers attended, but crowds seemed smaller than for a job fair in February.

This expo featured many service companies looking for people with lower skill levels or those with easily transferable abilities.

Waffle House, American Express, Crown Automotive and a variety of temporary services agencies were among the companies.

Insurance and financial companies were out in force at the expo, offering high potential, high risk jobs for people with sales abilities and confidence.

Jack Whitley of Modern Woodmen of America, a non-profit insurance and investments group, said he was recruiting “that needle in a haystack” who can work on commission and remain motivated in good times and bad.

His company offers benefits, but the salary is strictly commission. Whitley doesn’t sugarcoat the work, but he said the person who passes the company aptitude test, works hard and hangs in through tough times can become very successful.

A different kind of company was looking for people with metal-working skills — but new hires will have to move. The Lockheed Martin aerospace company needs about 50 people to fashion new wings for P-3 military airplanes in Greenville, S.C., said David D’Alessio, a recruiter for the company.

The Triad has a number of aircraft maintenance companies whose workers have been laid off from time to time, and Lockheed knows this is a good area to look for trained, quality workers.

If the right people connect with each other, Clapper said, this job expo could result in new jobs for 300 or 400 people.
Even laid-off executives with professional skills, Clapper said, are looking at relatively unskilled service jobs.

“That’s one of the truly frightening and almost depressing points of our economy,” he said. The job fair “is more of a melting pot than it ever has been.”

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