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Job seekers of all ages and skill levels spent Wednesday afternoon searching for new career opportunities at the All Nations Job Fair at Evraz Place in Regina.
Alexis Goodstriker just moved to Regina from Calgary. She graduated from a technical college and she has experience working in an office in the oil and gas sector.
“There’s a lot of opportunity here. It was very hard to find work when oil and gas went down in Alberta,” she said. “It was very hard to find work, even just admin work and I graduated from SAIT. I went from working at an oil and gas company, to serving.”
She is originally from North Battleford and a member of the Saulteaux First Nation. She is impressed with the outreach and demand for First Nations workers from companies in Saskatchewan.
Twenty-one-year-old Lariah Scott and 22-year-old Tiahnna Greenstein are both taking part in an employment program in Regina. They are looking for work and education opportunities at the job fair.
“I want to get back into school right now, go back for upgrading my Grade 12, and hopefully get into office administration,” Greenstein explained.
Scott says she has been working as a housekeeper for a while, but she is also enrolling in higher education so she can find a career.
Willfred Isaac came all the way from his home on Kahkewistahaw First Nation to check out the job fair.
“The people here are very helpful actually, they give you a lot of information on some of the jobs and some of the training that they have in Saskatchewan,” Isaac said. “It gives you a lot of background for what Saskatchewan has for employment.”
He used to work in a kitchen but has been unemployed for more than a year. Now he is interested in training for a job in the trades, possibly as a plumber.
John Hopkins is the CEO of the Regina and District Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the event every year. He noted that he has seen an older age range for people coming through the doors. He admits the job market has changed since last year
“I looked at SaskJobs just this morning and there were still 3,000 jobs,” he noted. “The difference is the energy sector isn’t quite as buoyant as it has been in the past so there’s not a lot of opportunities in that sector.”
Hopkins says major construction projects like the stadium and the Regina bypass are providing more work opportunities and keeping the local economy moving ahead.
