By: Sophia Romero
On October 12, 2017 the Roosevelt County Development Director, Orlando Ortega, held a job fair for Portales residents from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the Memorial Building located at 200 E. Seventh Street in Portales, New Mexico.
The Roosevelt County Economic Development hosts the job fair to help Portales residents who are in the job market, and employers seeking qualified employees for their businesses.
“We hope the outcome of this job fair is to help the community, and help business find good employees,” said Ortega.
Ortega has been working on the job fair since mid-September looking for employers to attend and table for certain position(s) that they have available.
Some of the employers that attended the job fair included: Farmers Insurance, Roosevelt General Hospital, Hampton Farms, Ready Roast Peanuts, Eastern New Mexico University, Excel Energy and Home Spot Properties. Overall, there were 23 employers present.
Compared to last year’s job fair in 2016, numbers of attendee’s sky-rocketed. Seventy-Two people came to the 2016 job fair, while 123 attended this year’s job fair. This jump in attendance is attributed to advertising around Portales, and on social media, such as Facebook.
For next year’s job fair, Ortega has high hopes. “I hope the job fair continues to grow. This year, there was no cost to the employer for their service, we partnered with the Roosevelt Chamber of Commerce this year which helped interest businesses,” said Ortega.
