Jerard Horn has never collected unemployment benefits in his working life and hopes he never will.
Still, the 37-year-old, college-educated sleep specialist isn't getting enough hours at his current job at Lourdes Hospital. With a working wife and a 16-month-old son at home, Horn needs a bigger paycheck.
Now he's looking for other job opportunities in a limited market in his field.
"It's like a ghost town," the Endicott resident said. "I've got to look for something, even if it's only temporary."
It's what brought him, along with hundreds of other people, to Friday's job fair at Broome Community College where the turnout was already setting a record.
Typically, the day-long annual fair attracts about 500 people seeking employment options, said Lou Santoni, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce, the fair's sponsor.
By noon Friday, with four hours of the fair remaining, at least 400 people had passed through the doors of the student center.
Between 150 and 200 people were lined up at the doors before the fair opened at 10 a.m., Santoni said. By noon Friday, 600 people had picked up a copy of the chamber's listing of the 51 employers at the fair. The chamber had printed 700 copies.
"It's a good news-bad news situation," Santoni said.
Good news because even in a recession and record-setting unemployment rates, employers are still hiring.
Friday's fair attracted 51 employers, ranging from Lourdes and United Health Services to BAE Control Systems and Giant Markets, which recently announced it had been sold to Weis Markets of Sunbury, Pa. That's down slightly from last year's fair, which offered 55 venues, but still a good number of companies are hiring in some of the worst economic times in recent memory.
The Giant continues to hire, even though the business has been sold, said Libbie Ritzman, a trainer and recruiter for the Binghamton-based 12-store grocery chain. Ritzman said she spent some time Friday telling potential employees that Giant employees will likely have their jobs when Weis takes over Aug. 21.
Not everyone has been so fortunate.
The obvious bad news for the local job market, Santoni said, is so many experienced, well-qualified people have lost their jobs. A majority of those at the job fair Friday were in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
"It's very humbling," Santoni said.
The chamber president was struck by the caliber of the people he saw Friday: people like Horn who are well-educated, well-dressed and hard-working.
Christian Harris, a senior economist at the state Department of Labor, was similarly impressed.
"People here are dressed for success, resume in hand, ready, willing and able," Harris said.
Harris wasn't surprised by Friday's job fair volume. Today's unemployment rate for the region is 7.9 percent; a year ago it was 5 percent, the economist said.
Those numbers seem to be driving more young people toward the military.
SFC Mose Perry has been recruiting for the New York Army National Guard for 16 years. He's impressed by the quality of people seeking possibilities in the military. Many of them have degrees, and he's crediting a crumbling economy for some of the largesse.
"I can't put enough emphasis on the quality of the people I see," Perry said. "A lot of it is because of the job market."
Some also are seeking structure in their lives and see the military as a way to gain it. Others consider a military stint as resume building.
Statewide and nationally, Perry said the military is exceeding its recruitment goals.
Those enlisting are also willing to take the chance, probably about 50-50, Perry said, that they'll be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan as part of a stint in the National Guard.
Nick Bookhout is thinking about joining.
The 29-year-old Sidney resident has an associate's degree and is getting a bachelor's degree. He is also unemployed.
Right now, a career in the military has its lure, he said Friday. When Bookhout looked at the list of venues, Perry's recruiting table jumped out at him. He's considering a career in law enforcement.
"I feel like I need to do something for opportunities later down the road," Bookhout said. "This would look a lot better on a resume than just doing nothing."
Would he risk going to war for resume building?
It's a possibility.
"If I had to, I just hope I'd come home safe," Bookhout said. "I'll find out when it happens."
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