Weekend Job Fair Drew Huge Numbers

January 16, 2017

By Andy Morphew The Duncan Banner

More than 500 job seekers attended a last minute job fair hosted by DAEDF. Jason Hodges/The Duncan Banner

Job seekers came out in huge numbers this weekend at the Simmons Center when Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation (DAEDF) saw 570 job seekers come interview for a new occupation.

Area employers like Halliburton, Family Dollar Distribution, Duncan Regional Hospital, Rockwater, New York Life, Arvest Bank, RightWay Manufacturing and Tilley Group.

DAEDF planned the job fair not knowing what the turnout was going to be due to the weather forecast, but DAEDF President Lyle Roggow was pleased with the outcome of the job fair.

“It was a tremendous success despite the weather we were supposed to have coming in,” Roggow said. “We started putting the event together probably with a week’s notice and I think it was a good indication of letting us also see the number of people and we had 570 individuals show up between 9 o’clock and 2 o’clock.”

Spokeswoman for the Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation, Jeannie Bowden said the job fair was a big turnout and will help people in Duncan get back to work.

“We’re very glad the job fair was successful for area employers to connect with potential employees,” Bowden said. “Most of all it is good to know more people will be employed and this gives us cautious optimism that 2017 will be better than 2016 for our area.”

During the job fair, some of the employers ran out of paper applications and had lines for the entirety of the day with several of the businesses doing interviews and hiring that same day.

Roggow said talking with some of the clients he said it exceed their expectations and was quite appreciative of finding quality applicants.

In a press release from the Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation they said the employers were impressed with the many qualified candidates.

With this job fair out of the way, Roggow said there is no plan of putting on another job fair at this time, but has said it is a possibility of having future ones if DAEDF sees the need for another fair.

“I don’t think we will set a timeline of when we will have the next one and I think we will continue to work with our companies and our community,” Roggow said. “Seeing what how their needs will mesh up with the opportunities as well.”

Roggow said some of the companies gathered 100s of applications and other companies will be conducting interviews in the coming days and was glad to see the success of the job fair.

“All-in-all it was a very successful day for the companies and for the individuals who attended,” Roggow said.

DAEDF was founded in 1993 to help promote the development of existing businesses while attracting new business and diversify Duncan’s economic base.