Michiganders lined up Thursday afternoon in Flint, anxious to grab something that's in short supply in the state: jobs.
More than 500 Michigan job seekers showed up within the first two hours of the Wyoming job fair at the Holiday Inn in Flint. Many Michigan job seekers arrived before the doors opened at 9 a.m., with resumes in hand, to apply for hundreds of jobs at more than a dozen companies in Wyoming.
Campbell County Economic Development Corp., the group that organized the job fair, said it expects 2,000 to 2,500 job seekers to attend the event by the time it closes at 6 p.m.
“We didn't anticipate this large of a crowd,” said Ruth Benson, Campbell County Economic Development's executive director. “There are a lot of qualified people here in Michigan.”
There were so many Michigan job seekers at the fair that organizers ran out of “What to do in Wyoming” brochures.
Some who attended the fair already have jobs, but say they want to get away from Michigan's dismal economy. Others say it's the state's sagging economy that keeps them from getting decent work here. Some of them have college degrees; others don't.
John Sharick, a Howell resident, has been a heavy equipment mechanic for nine years. Even with that experience, he said he attended the fair because he hasn't been able to find work in Michigan since he was fired from his job because of a clerical error in July.
“I have to do something. How else am I going to pay the mortgage?” said Sharick, who believes he can land a job in Wyoming for between $5,000 and $25,000 more than what he made in his last job in Michigan. “There are still opportunities in Michigan, but they're slim and you have to be at the top of your game to ever get a chance at getting them.
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