Crowd Of 10,000 Overwhelms N.H. Job Fair

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News

A higher-than-expected turnout at a New Hampshire job fair has forced organizers to turn away throngs of job seekers.

More than 10,000 people showed up Thursday for the event at Southern New Hampshire University's athletic complex in Manchester. The job fair had been heavily promoted on television, but organizers expected just 5,000 participants.

Traffic was backed up for miles and quickly filled the 3,000-car Mall of New Hampshire parking lot, which was being used as a shuttle-bus pickup hub.

Officials say 1,300 people, many of them dressed in business suits, entered the job fair within the first hour. The event began at 10 a.m. and was supposed to run until 3 p.m.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/09/business/main4932271.shtml?tag=topStories;secondStory

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[Donnachaidh]

1. And it would be nice if some of that proposed bailout money would be used for JOBS

This is an EMBARRASSMENT to this country -- we can pay off bad debts run up by BANKS, but we can't put people to work. :grr:

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. It's also embarassing that this is sinking with little or no comment.

People, even rational people on DU, still want to pretend that everything's going to be all right.

[Sherman A1]

4. Well

I will give it a K&R.

[Donnachaidh]

10. yup -- still whistling and looking at the ceiling

But it's the usual American Mantra -- "I've got mine -- so f*ck you and your problems". But when they lose their jobs the sobbing and wailing will begin, bigtime.

[high density]

22. Having a sound financial system seems like the bedrock for any business that has jobs

For instance, the company I work for makes much of its money from leasing things. Without money from the banks our leasing program collapses and a lot of jobs go with it. Small businesses need loans to offer NET 30 terms to other businesses and make payroll on time. The financial system has tentacles in everything that businesses do, so implying that our bailouts are some sort of waste is very short-sighted in my opinion. ("Moral hazard" is a discussion for another thread.)

[davekriss]

24. Absolute embarrassment -- and class thievery, frankly

That $787 billion, if just given to the 5.6 million unemployed (since December 2007), amounts to over $140,000 each. Now, that would be stimulative!!

Instead we gave it to banks and insurance companies, propping up the already advantaged who own a substantial number of shares in these otherwise bankrupt endeavors, and ensuring the mismanagers continue to pull down their large salaries and delightful bonuses.

Bankrupt the many, bailout the few! The American way! And just think, they get to start ticking down their welfare clocks (max two continguous years, max 5 years in a lifetime) once their (albeit extended) unemployment runs out. Envision a former middle-manager, tufts of hair every which way and scraggly beard, clothes soiled to a uniform gray and brown, sitting at an intersection with a sign "will work for food" -- while the limos and lexi and beemers wizz by with the bailed out big boys from the board rooms finely dressed and fed and plotting with their paid-for politicians on how to extract even more bounty from our generationally-depleted treasury.

This is FUBAR cubed, if you ask me.

[OhioChick]

3. K&R

They had a job fair here recently and 6,000 people showed up and they had to start turning people away. Times are bad.

[jmowreader]

5. I wonder how many people will be hired as a result of this job fair

If this one is anything like the job fairs they have in Fayettenam, there will be LOTS of $8/hour part-time zero-benefits jobs available. If you get two and your spouse gets two, you MIGHT be able to pay your bills.

[CatholicEdHead]

15. Not many

I have been to a couple around the Twin Cities, they have been very busy and they end up saying the same thing, "Check our website for jobs and apply online". They will take your resume but you usually do not have the custom tailored one they want so it does not do very much.

[Mopar151]

6. I got there a little after noon

The poor lady with the offical nametag told me it was Mall Security who cut off the shuttle buses. The sponsoring TV station (WMUR / ch 9) is soft-pedaling the mess, but admitting that they were overwhelmed, and that even some of those who made the buses did'nt get into the job fair.
I made a quiet exit out one of the other mall entrances, and took care of some other biz on the way home.
Like checking in with my last boss at the ghost town where I used to work...
At this point, all I can do is hug my wife, who just walked in.
:grouphug:

[FedUpWithIt All]

8. ...

:hug:

Good wishes for your family. I hope things pick up quickly.

[annabanana]

14. I wonder how many people got hooked up. . . n/t

[change_notfinetuning]

7. Saul Alinsky is spinning in his grave. These bailouts are the epitome of

trickle-down economics, not the bottom-up approach he promised when wooing us in the campaign. It is shameful that money is unlimited for the crooked manipulators and gamblers, but barely there for innocent victims of the recession they caused. That more is not done for the unemployed and those in and facing foreclosure is more than an embarrassment. It's a betrayal.

[phantom power]

9. "higher than expected"

You know, we had one of these "way higher than expected" turnouts at a job fair last month. It makes me wonder, are the organizers of these events not reading a fucking newspaper?

I want to shake these people. Look around you, man. Things are bad.

[antimatter98]

11. Where is Obama on US employment issues? Nowhere; he's AWOL from America's needs.

All Obama cares about is:

-globalism and the next big war.
-pumping 11 trillion dollars into the banks for bonuses.
-making sure that Bush's telecom buddies are taken care of.

Obama is a fraud. Thankfully, it's becoming as obvious as the smell
of gasoline on a hot, humid day, so everyone notices now. We voted
for a fraud, now we have to work ten times as hard to change things.

[Zhade]

12. Silly DUer, we're not the banks that fucked up the economy.

For some reason, THEY get rewarded while WE suffer.

I am rapidly losing hope in Obama.

[Mopar151]

13. And who whizzed in your cornflakes?

My unemployment check is 9% higher 'cuz of the stimulus. That's REAL, and damm well appreciated. The villans of this piece are all the funny-money boys and banksters who've wrecked the companies I worked for.
Tell your mother she wants you, wouldja?

[high density]

23. How about pumping 11 trillion into the banks so we continue to have an economy?

The fact is that we'll never know what would've happened if that money (four trillion so far) had not been spent. Obama has made this point a million times. Yes, we put "moral hazard" on pause for a while. The other option likely would've simply screwed us all as the banks went down. Think unemployment at 10% is bad?

Obama has been and continues to be faced with a lot of situations that offer a choice between something bad and something worse. Apparently since you have branded him a "fraud" you definitely cannot understand that. You must live in some fairytale world where January 20 ended all of our problems and now Obama is just doing this stuff for fun and to piss off the middle class.

[brentspeak]

26. What a bunch of apologist crap

Practically every economist and intelligent political observer who isn't sucking up to Wall St. knows that the American people have been held up in broad daylight, that we've been scammed.

[Bluerthanblue]

27. scammed by who? the reality is

there ain't no clear, easy, or painless way outta this mess. And anyone who doesn't realize that we- (the American people) have been living beyond our means for a long time now- needs to step back from the chaos and do some reevaluating. I don't have any great fondness for Wall st- and how we've foolishly allowed so much of our country's focus to center on businesses which do little but manipulate money and play with numbers. This was bound to catch up with us at some point.

I believe the bailouts were probably necessary, but if we don't shift our culture around into ....more meaningful industry, we'll regret it.

IMO- (i'm no expert).

:shrug:

[tomm2thumbs]

16. it's my fault - I posted that Sarah Palin was going to be in the dunking booth there

I think many people just came to lob a ball and hope to sink the Alaska Titanic herself

[Pale Blue Dot]

17. Hahahahaha.

Or not.

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. Sad and pitiful...all those people, hoping for a job.

[Kalyan]

19. small prayer

and i pray that these folks find a job that gives them peace & prosperity.

[Dappleganger]

20. That's 10,000 people who WANT to work.

10,000 people who want to contribute to the economy, pay their taxes, raise their families and have good health care and good schools.

These are not deadbeats--these are people who aren't afraid of taking extra effort to go find something for themselves. If they wanted handouts they would have stayed at home on their asses.

NH people are PROUD but so are millions of more Americans. We need this administration to take job creation seriously!

[HughBeaumont]

21. Friedman shock doctrine economics at it's logical conclusion.

If we don't get off this path, expect this crap to happen every five years.

Laissez-fail trickle-ON DOES. NOT. WORK.

[kenfrequed]

25. This makes me think about the depression

People wandering and looking for work with long lines for a single help-wanted sign.