Hundreds turn out for ECC job fair; college waives registration fee

Six growing mouths to feed plus 18 months without a steady income equals an increasingly dire quest for Christine and Michael Romanenko.

The South Elgin couple, whose six children range from age 19 to 2, were among the hundreds at Elgin Community College's Job Fair Thursday afternoon. Nick, age 9; Zack, 7; Joshua, 5; and Alena, 2, were in tow.

Christine, who has been a stay-at-home mom, said Michael was doing construction work for about $40 an hour until the market dried up. Now, he works as a subcontractor for Comcast for $12 an hour.

"Its food and the mortgage," she said of her family's most pressing worries. "And feeling awful that you have to depend on family and friends so much to help out.

ECC's fair, which Kathy Meisinger of ECC's Career Services department estimated drew between 800 and 1,500 attendees, saw a line wrap into the parking lot.

The college waived the $275 registration fee for the 108 participating employers, which included FedEx, the Gail Borden Library, Edward Jones and the Elgin Mental Health Center.

Last year, she said, 98 companies paid $225 apiece to attend.

"Many companies are here offering fewer jobs than they have in the past," she said. "But they're still looking for good, dedicated employees."

Inside the job fair, individuals waited in lines six or more deep to hand in their resumes.

Nicki Scogfeldt, of South Elgin, was laid off from the Grand Victoria Casino in October. A former landscape supervisor, Scogfeldt says she's now applying for positions outside her area of expertise. Pulling her resume out of a briefcase, she pointed to a line she recently added: "interested in a new career."

Dan Biggins, of West Dundee, said he's been on a full-time hunt since losing his sales marketing position about six months ago.

What scares him more than the competition of hundreds of others, he said, "is the health of prospective employers."