More than 260 attend York job fair

Amanda Craig, 26, has been job hunting for a year without a lot of luck.

On Thursday, she was able to get face to face with dozens of employers looking to hire.

“I’m looking for any job,” said Craig, who lives in Smyrna and has worked in home health care, as a waitress and in a fabrication shop. She is in the process of becoming a certified nursing assistant.

Craig was among more than 260 job-seekers who showed up for the fourth annual job fair, sponsored by the York Police Department and Tender Hearts Ministries in York.

About 30 employers in a variety of industries, from food service to retail and home health care, showed up to visit with prospective employees and accept applications.

Ainslee Moss, executive director of Tender Hearts, said the emergency assistance agency still sees a big need for jobs.

Moss said several York-area business have closed over the past year, including a few large employers. Those closings bring people to Tender Hearts in search of help, she said.

Moss said the free public job fair is an opportunity to bring job-seekers and employers together without cost to either group.

Most of the employers at the fair are within a 45 mile radius, she said.

Doug Hurst, 56, of York said he has been looking for full-time work in the care of elderly people or those with disabilities.

Hurst said he has experience in that area and a college degree, but he said finding full-time work still has been tough.

“Just working with people is great; I enjoy it,” he said.

York Police Lt. Dale Edwards said the job fair is part of the department’s effort to be involved in the community. He said police and Tender Hearts both saw a need for people to find work.

“One of the things people kept saying was, ‘We need jobs,’” Edwards said. He said he and Moss “sat down and said, let’s do a job fair.”

By Jennifer Becknell, Staff Reporter with the Enquirer-Herald