More than 130 employers attend Rep. Carson’s 10th annual job fair at Ivy Tech

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WISH)- Hundreds of job seekers filed into Ivy Tech on Thursday with resumes in hand. Though the unemployment rate both in the state and in Indianapolis is down, officials say events like Rep. André Carson’s career fair are essential.

A variety of employers set up booths in hopes of finding promising prospective employees.

“We can take anyone with no experience to 15, 20, 25 plus years experience,” said Jake Gilman, Gaylor Electric.

Though the event is held at Ivy Tech it is open to anyone interested in finding a job.

“Phenomenal turn out over 130 employers who are here for anyone seeking a job, seeking part time work, wanting a career shift,” explained Carson.

This job fair has seen tremendous growth in it’s 10-year existence.

“Oh we started with under 100 employers, maybe around 50,” said Carson.

In 2018 the event saw more than 700 job seekers.

According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics the Indiana unemployment rate is currently at 3.3% with Indianapolis coming in below that at 3.1%.

“It is a personal passion. We have a phenomenal team who helped assemble this in the district and it is something we want to continue doing, making sure Hoosiers have jobs,” said Carson.

While this event is beneficial for those looking for work it has also proved successful for employers.

“We do get our fair share of hires from these kind of events and we are very proud of that,” said Kevin Howell, Community Health Network.

Whether it is a student looking for a job after graduation or a seasoned worker looking for change, the options for job seekers to choose from are endless and all in one place.

“I came in looking for anything to work with adolescents and kids because I kind of want to give back to the community,” said Avon’te Waddy, a student at Ivy Tech looking for work post-graduation.

Employers said they enjoy coming to events like this because it helps them gauge what skills are available in the market.

“The diversity and everything we get with the quality of student from Ivy Tech but also individuals looking for work across central Indiana has been really great for partnership across a lot of our clinical and just health care in general for us,” explained Howell.

The unemployment rate in Indianapolis has steadily been decreasing since 2013, where at that time it was above 9%.