PERRY, Iowa — On Thursday, hundreds of the near 1,300 employees at Tyson Foods pork plant in Perry that will be let go from their jobs in late June explored new career opportunities at a second job fair in two months.
The job fair was preceded by another in April – strictly focusing on local employers – and also visits from the IowaWorks mobile workforce center in March.
Sixty-five local and state employers participated in Thursday's job fair. But local employers were prioritized because the Iowa Workforce Development want to keep people close to home, as some workers moved years ago to Perry specifically to work at the Tyson Foods pork plant.
Tom Harmsen, marketing director at the Dallas County Hospital, said: There are naturally people who are upset and uncertain about the future. At the same time though, we have encountered some [employees] trying to look at it from an opportunistic angle."
"We wanna make sure that people aren't feeling that they have to move away from their homes," added Joseph Nobile, IowaWorks career planner. "A lot of these individuals who have been working at Perry, have been there for 20-plus years. You build a community around that. We're gonna be continuously working with them, continuing to go out there until everybody's got a job."
From construction to county hospitals, the job fair had myriad career fields for these job seekers to explore and apply for.
Thursday's job fair was the last one directed specifically toward Tyson Foods employees, but the Iowa Workforce Development said it will continue to work with job seekers and employers down the road.