2024 Southwest Georgia Regional Job Fair held at Albany Civic Center

ALBANY, Ga. – Last week, many businesses in the Albany area participated in a career fair hosted at the Albany Civic Center. This initiative aimed to connect job seekers with career opportunities throughout the region.

With various sectors represented, including financial services, healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing, the fair offered individuals a chance to interact with regional employers actively seeking new talent.

CBS 44 was on-site and spoke with several of the businesses present at the fair.

“This is the 2024 Southwest Georgia Regional Job Fair. We’re anticipating about 1000 people coming through, which is great. We have over fifty employers, which is even more than last year. So I would say that the turnout today was great,” said Jessica Zurheide, Director of Business Relations, Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission.

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“You can frequently check the City of Albany Fire Department Facebook page. We use that to let people know what we’ve got going on, but also, this is our commercial. You can see on our screen. So, just be vigilant. Keep your eyes open,” said Lt. Antroine Williford, Albany Fire Department (AFD).

“We’ve got line workers, we also have maintenance technicians, shift manager. All this for chow chow, but also all this for the restaurant business. Always need people there,” said Brian Heard, Online Marketing Manager, Stewbos.

“So, we’re here today to create resumes for those who may want us to take a look at it and might need some tweaking and/or create it from scratch. Again, we have to remember that resumes are just a brief screenshot of what they’ve done in the past as far as their jobs go, and we want to help with that,” said Derby Langford, Branch Manager, Southern Point Staffing.

“There are certain things there’s always going to be a need for. Police, nurses, doctors, teachers. It gives you a sense of fulfillment. You see a lot, you do a lot, but when you know you’re helping your community, it’s a great thing,” said Lt. Kawaski Barnes, Albany Police Department (APD).

“We have everything from purchasing teams to engineers, to H.R., manufacturing, engineering, production supervisors, everything in between. Fiberglass, sheet metal, everything from riveting to sweeping floors,” said Kevin Pierce, VP, Sales Support and Services, Thrush Aircraft.

“We try to bridge the gap between employers and talent in southwest Georgia by putting on this job fair to bring everybody together. So, if anybody missed the job fair today, but is still interested in learning about the open positions, they can contact our office. You can visit our website at www.Choosealbany.Com, and under our staff page, my number is listed along with our general number. They can always just call and we’ll help get them in touch with our local employers,” said Jessica Zurheide, Director of Business Relations, Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission.

In addition to local partners, the Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission worked with 13 surrounding counties to include their employers and prospective job seekers, making this event successful not only for Dougherty county, but also for southwest Georgia as a whole.

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