Job fair at Encore work site draws thousands

Thousands of people who showed up today looking for work - any work at all - were vivid indicators of how hard the flailing economy has hit the Tampa Bay area. The line of applicants began forming soon after 5 a.m. though the job fair wasn't scheduled to begin until five hours later.

Glenn Lawson, 52, was third in line at the Encore construction site, waiting in the pre-dawn darkness. The crowd grew rapidly until, by 10 a.m., some 2,000 people had showed up. They all had stories of job losses, seemingly endless job searches and piecing together ways to survive without paychecks in a city with 13 percent unemployment.

"I'm out there every day," said Lawson, who lost his construction job two years ago. "I'm hoping to get a job. I don't care what kind. Anything I can do to get a steady check coming in, I'll do."

He arrived early, he said, because this job site wasn't going to be his last stop. By about 10 a.m. he had filed his application. "Now I can still go out and continue to look," Lawson said.

Behind him the line of hopeful job applicants twisted and turned across a wide swath of bulldozed land that once was the site of the Central Park Village public housing complex. It wound toward three tents, where about 30 people gathered to apply for various construction-related jobs.
A few steps beyond the huddled applicants, people could get a free hot dog and a soda.

By 3 o'clock this afternoon ZMG Construction of Longwood representatives reported more than 5,000 applications had been accepted for positions including unskilled and skilled laborers, project managers, foremen and site supervisors. Construction on Encore, a development of affordable and market-rate housing, shops, restaurants, black history museum and offices, is set to break ground by June.

The project is expected to provide up to 4,000 construction jobs during the next three to four years.

The Tampa Housing Authority has partnered with Banc of America Community Development Corp., which will provide the bulk of funding for the $425 million project. In January the project received $38 million in federal stimulus money with about $28 million for Encore construction.

Initially about 1,000 jobs will be filled, said Richard Zahn, chief executive officer of ZMG Construction. About 200 people will be hired within 60 to 90 days; another 200 or more in August and a similar number by the end of the year, he said.

Hiring for the first group of workers will begin within three weeks. Others who are pre-selected for future hiring also will be notified.

"Everyone will be contacted who applied," Zahn said. "It's a pretty heavy endeavor. We started setting this up so you weren't waiting six months for an answer."

Zahn said his company promised that at least 20 percent of new hires would come from among those who applied today. There also are commitments for hiring minorities and minority-owned businesses, providing some on-the-job training and giving second chances to people with criminal records.

Misdemeanors will not count against applicants, Zahn said, while felonies will be examined on a case by case basis.

The turnout was "a little bittersweet," said Zahn. It is encouraging to see such a large pool of applicants to choose from but sad to see how many people need jobs, he said.

The crowd was a cross-section of workers: telemarketers, project managers, fast-food restaurant employees, truck drivers, heavy-equipment operators, sales representatives.

West Tampa resident Yasema Jackson, 38, just completed a temporary sales job in Kentucky. She has been looking for steady work for two years since losing a telemarketing job. She has done housekeeping and fast-food restaurant service. "I would do whatever was available to me," she said. "It's hard. I'll learn anything. Give me a shovel. Just give me a job."

Chris Kenney built screened enclosures for a company that dismissed half its employees about a year ago. He since has done small remodeling jobs when he can find them.

He has walked up and down Brandon Boulevard, putting in job applications at every business. "They all tell you the same story," Kenney said. "We're accepting applications but we're not hiring."

David Fernandez, 54, used to build development projects such as Encore. He worked for WCI Communities as director of land development for about nine years. One of the projects on which he worked was the Westshore Yacht Club in South Tampa.

When the company filed for bankruptcy nearly two years ago he lost his job. He has been living off unemployment checks and savings. "I've now burned my savings account to $23," he said.

"We're in a recession but when you've been unemployed two years you're in a depression," Fernandez said. "Everything is gone now but they'll bring it back. The hardest part is getting past the hundreds of people to get an interview."

There are people who were laid off and those who know someone who was laid off. Lamar Nixon, 53, knows it both ways.

Waiting in line he dials up his nephew to make sure he knows about the job fair. The good news: His nephew had found a job.

Nixon has been out of work for about two years. He was in Fort Myers driving trucks and operating heavy equipment for a construction company that went out of business. He has survived taking odd jobs at daily labor pools at the Salvation Army on Florida Avenue.

His church pays for him to stay at a rooming house. In return he plays keyboard and guitar at church services. "Just put me to work with a shovel. I'll be a bathroom cleaner," Nixon said.

He was not discouraged to see the huge number of people looking for work. "This is joy to me to see this," said Nixon, who wore a blue ball cap with a yellow cross and "Jesus" stitched across it. "I believe everybody out here is going to get a chance to work."