Foster finds face on local unemployment woes at job fair
More than 600 people looking for work turned out to a job fair at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove on Thursday. Some of them had an unexpected interview with Congressman Bill Foster, who attended the fair to see firsthand what impact the poor economy has had on local workers.
It didn't take him long to find out. Cars filled the parking lot, not to mention multiple shuttle buses transporting those who chose to use public transit to make it to the fair. People looking for work filled most of the available seats both inside and outside the building with piles of job applications and fast-moving pencils. More than 50 area employers attended the fair to fill what those with applications described as hard-to-find jobs.
Jacqueline Petrovic, of Oswego, worked in a lab making eyeglasses at a Pearle Vision in Naperville for nearly 20 years until the store was sold. She's been unemployed for about five months and finds most of her meals at her local food pantry.
"When you get to the point when you're going to be 60 in a few weeks like me it gets kind of hard to find a new job," she said. "I'm doing the best I can to get by. It's not easy. I just need a job."
That was a familiar refrain from many of the attendees Foster encountered, including William Lequire of Aurora and Keir Stallworth of Naperville. Both sat at the same table surveying the crowd they both said is a familiar sight. Stallworth has been looking for factory or computer work since September 2008, but to no avail. Lequire was an ancillary casualty of the Caterpillar layoffs and has been without full-time work since January. He's filled his time with work through a temp agency and hitting the job fair circuit. The WCC job fair was his third in recent weeks. His problem hasn't been finding places that are hiring, but making himself stand out against the mass of other applicants all applying for the same few spots.
"There's jobs out there, but I haven't been able to get any place to hire me yet," Lequire said. "I just keep applying."