When Initiatives Prince George held an online job fair this week, the second time the city's economic development agency has conducted the exercise, their data showed an appetite from companies looking for Lower Mainland employees and job-seekers on the hunt for Prince George positions.
"The 16 employers who took [part had] no shortage of potential candidates to fill their job openings," said Initiatives Prince George CEO Heather Oland. "The web portal created for the online job fair was viewed by 1,900 people and each company's virtual booth received an average of 322 visitors. A total of 766 applications were submitted by job seekers, working out to an average of 47 per employer."
The first IPG online job fair happened in June and was deemed a success at the time. This second edition was more popular. It attracted 38 per cent more participants and resulted in 71 per cent more applications being submitted.
"We are very excited about the initial results of the second Prince George Online Job Fair," said Melissa Barcellos, IPG's economic development officer. "We don't yet have information available about hires made, as the hiring process takes some time, but we are looking forward to connecting with participating employers in the coming days to discuss their results."
Online job fairs are designed to connect local employers with potential employees living in Metro Vancouver without the travel costs associated with taking part in traditional job fairs. While promotion of the job fair was targeted at new Canadians living in Metro Vancouver who are underemployed or unemployed, local residents were also welcome to participate.
The Immigrant Employment Council of BC (IEC) and the Prince George Chamber of Commerce were partners in this event. Oland said that according to IEC's data, "the majority of the 40,000 immigrants who settle in British Columbia each year remain in Metro Vancouver, representing an untapped resource for employers in Prince George."
IEC contributed more than $60,000 provided to them by the provincial and federal governments to offset IPG's costs for holding the online job fair.
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