ZitatSask. politicians trying to woo Ontario grads
Hundreds of people lined up outside Toronto's Metro Convention Hall as one of the country's biggest job fairs prepared to get underway.
01/04/2009 8:27:04 AM
The National Job Fair and Training Expo opened Tuesday at 10 a.m., promising more than 170 exhibitors with more than "7,000 job, training, education and entrepreneurship offers," according to its website.
More than 80 sectors -- from retail businesses to school boards -- have a presence at the annual event.
A few people who spoke with CTV Toronto admitted they were there to find replacements for jobs they had lost. One man, looking for an accounting or finance job, said he'd been out of work for three months.
Another man looking for IT-related work said he only lost his job on Friday. "You can't really wait too long. You have to get back into it, otherwise you'll never find a job," he said.
One of the more than 800 recruiters working the fair said there are "tons of people looking for work."
More than 10,000 people are expected to attend over the two days.
Another recruiter had this tip for attendees: 80 per cent of jobs come through networking, so talk to people.
Since the recession started last fall, Toronto's unemployment rate surged to 8.3 per cent in February, up from a pre-recession level of 6.6 per cent. Ontario has reached 8.7 per cent, a 12-year high.
Nationally, the unemployment rate reached 7.7 per cent in February.
One of the few provinces still doing well in terms of economic performance is Saskatchewan.
That province's Premier Brad Wall will be leading a delegation to Ontario aimed at wooing recent university graduates to consider relocating to his prairie province. He was to attend a business luncheon on Tuesday and the job fair on Wednesday.
Saskatchewan's Advanced Education Minister Rob Norris said his province has 6,200 unfilled jobs and wants to show it is serious about recruiting workers.
The province is offering new graduates up to $20,000 if they move to Saskatchewan and promise to stay for seven years.
Back in September, Wall had been in Ontario to woo workers from the battered manufacturing sector here.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Dana Levenson and files from The Canadian Press
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