At Philly’s largest job fair, some candidates were seeking hybrid schedules, but fewer employers were on hand to hire

Recent college graduate Kyle Harrell stepped out of the rain into the indoor pavilion at Temple University’s Aramark Student Training and Recreation Complex wearing a button-down dress shirt and suit. He was there to find his first job out of college.

Originally from North Philly, Harrell studied management of information systems at Norwich University in Vermont and graduated in April with a bachelor’s degree. He came to the Temple University Neighborhood Job Fair in search of a data analysis or information technology position.

Around noon, Harrell was trying to find the Amazon stand to check for the type of job he was looking for. Based on his data research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, he thinks he could make $50,000 to $60,000 a year. He’d also like to find hybrid work that requires him to be in the office only two or three days a week.

Currently in its 16th iteration, the annual Temple University event is the biggest employment fair in Philadelphia, according to the university. Over 1,000 job seekers were expected to attend.

As the fair has evolved throughout the years, so have the job offers.

Some employees have realized they like working remotely during the pandemic, said Michael Robinson, the organizer of the event and the director of community outreach and hiring for Lenfest North Philadelphia Workforce Initiative. Companies need to continue offering that hybrid option as an incentive, he said.

“People still want that option,” he said. “They want to know that they can work from home. It’s a plus because you get to take care of family matters, as well as work.”

Both hybrid and in-person jobs were available this year, Robinson said. But fewer companies were participating in the fair. That’s a sign of the economy doing better now than it was last year, he said.

“Anytime there’s a bad economy, that’s the best time to host a job fair, when the economy is struggling,” Robinson said.

The unemployment rate in Pennsylvania was 4.0% in May, the lowest rate on record since 1976, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry. That’s slightly higher than the national average, which was 3.7%.

The fair hosted 84 companies this year compared to 145 in 2022.

Some participants were at Temple seeking jobs on behalf of other workers.

Gina Mencarelli, a program support coordinator at the Institute for Community Justice in Philadelphia, was looking for jobs for previously incarcerated people. “This is a huge list of [employers]. It’s a one-stop shop,” she said.

She was seeking face time with employers to find out whether they offer second-chance employment opportunities. Stigma is still an obstacle, she said.

Raymond King, a family service supervisor for the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the Gaudenzia Diagnostic and Rehabilitation Center in Philadelphia, was looking for job leads for people who are recovering from mental-health and substance-abuse disorders.

He said it would take months to gather all the information he can get at the job fair in one day. Plus the face-to-face interaction allows him to build connections that would otherwise be difficult to foster.

“This becomes very helpful,” he said.

Across the room, multiple people huddled around the popular SEPTA stand, looking for a chance to share their resumes or get more details about positions that could fit their profile and experience. The company was looking for bus operators, engineers, painters, and even an attorney right now, among the open positions.

Cierra Robertson, a SEPTA recruiter, said her favorite part of her job is calling people to tell them they got the job.

“There’s something rewarding about being able to not only help the department fill the vacancies … but also to give somebody an opportunity to put food on their table,” she said.