Job fairs change purpose

Jeffrey Baumgartner got a disturbing glimpse of the challenges facing some of South Carolina's unemployed population when he tried to help an Allendale County man write a resume.

The man sat down at the computer terminal, picked the mouse off the pad and held it against the computer screen, trying to move the cursor around.

Baumgartner, 28, a Washington native whose home state boasts cutting-edge companies like Microsoft Corp. and Boeing, began to laugh, thinking it was a joke. But it wasn't. And the situation was no longer funny.

"I didn't realize some rural communities didn't have consistent access to computer training or technology in general," he said.

Baumgartner is part of a seven-person team that was to travel across South Carolina and Georgia to promote job openings at the Savannah River Site cleanup project, a $1.6 billion effort to decommission nuclear reactors and treat contaminated soil.

The group stopped in North Charleston on Monday with a different mission from when it started out. With most vacant positions now filled at the federal facility near Aiken, the focus has shifted to providing the jobless with the basic tools they will need to secure employment.

The tour was set up as a series of job fairs, but team members quickly found themselves on the front lines of South Carolina's employment crisis. They learned that businesses have few openings, and they crossed paths with older and, in many cases, unskilled manufacturing workers forced into the labor market for the first time because their longtime employers either closed or cut payrolls.

"It's depressing that people don't have the skills to even search for jobs," Baumgartner said.

The $787 billion stimulus act has provided $1.6 billion so far for the Savannah River Site project. The federal money is credited with either saving or creating 2,358 jobs, providing work for positions that range from janitors to chemists.

But the companies that won contracts at the Department of Energy site have filled the bulk of their openings. At the employment fairs, staffers continued to solicit resumes from attendees until two weeks ago, when hiring managers told them to stop so as not to instill a false sense of hope among applicants. Job seekers still can submit their resumes themselves by going to the employment section at www.srs.gov.

That directive came days after the group held a workshop in a yarn factory that was set to close in Sylvania, Ga., which has a population of 2,511. Some older employees had worked at the plant since high school. Few had resumes, and some needed help with simple tasks, such as creating e-mail accounts, Baumgartner said.

"That was definitely around the time we recognized the importance to keep going and give people the tools to find a job," he said. Baumgartner added the new focus is in keeping with the spirit of the stimulus plan's objectives.

At Monday's tour stop at the Trident One-Stop Career Center, one staffer helped Christopher Steen of Goose Creek edit his resume so it would fit on one page. Another helped Cynthia Maynard of North Charleston send her resumes to companies that advertised jobs in the classified advertising section of a newspaper.

"I'm sheltered," Baumgartner acknowledged as he watched his colleagues dispense advice. "I've lived in larger cities my whole life, and it's just been an eye-opening experience to see such hardship."

Reach Katy Stech at 937-5549 or kstech@postandcourier.com.