Cairns jobs expo yields jobs for 300
THREE hundred people have found work through the jobs expo in Cairns last week.
Local employment co-ordinator Peter Doutre said since last Wednesday’s event, involving Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, 300 people were expected to be in work within the next two weeks.
He said 35 people got jobs on the day, 80 traineeships were signed up and 2500 expressions of interest were lodged electronically.
"I’m very confident that 300 people will expect to be placed in work in the next couple of weeks," Mr Doutre said.
He said the jobs were across a wide field, including construction and hospitality, but he was unable to provide details.
"It was a good day for Cairns. There were 5500 job seekers and 450 jobs on the jobs board," Mr Doutre said. "Anecdotally those (employers) displaying work were quite surprised at the skill sets of the job seekers."
Mr Doutre said employers were expecting people with no experience or skills.
"This has been a good kick start," he said.
Mr Doutre said he wanted to hold another jobs expo in a few months.
"We held a jobs expo when there was a low ebb in place. We need another in a few months when things start to pick up," he said.
Mr Doutre said more jobs should start to come on line with the Federal Government’s stimulus money.
"We are now starting to see the stimulus money being invested with a lot of construction projects to soon start," he said.
He said the jobs should become available after Christmas and the New Year in about mid-January.
Mr Doutre said, as the tenders for the second stage of the school projects were finalised, the job search companies would be put in touch with the successful tenderers.
He said the same would happen with the $60 million social housing projects that had been fast tracked by Mr Rudd when he was in Cairns.
Mr Doutre said he was hopeful Cairns also would be successful in obtaining funding for a $ 2 million youth centre.
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