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Job developer Doug Henderson assists a job seeker
at the Workforce Development program at Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation.
For those looking for work, it’s a tough world out there.
At the beginning of the year the Fiscal Policy Institute localized unemployment figures, and – except for East New York in Brooklyn – Washington Heights, Inwood and the western Bronx had the worst numbers in the city: 13 percent of the entire working population north of Harlem was unemployed. Black and Hispanic Northern Manhattanites have it the worst – roughly 17 percent of that population, which is the majority north of W. 155th Street, is unemployed.
“It’s been a very, very tough two years,” said Sara Farimani, the director of Workforce Development at the nonprofit Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation (NMIC).
“Though they say the recession left us, I don’t think our community got the word,” added Doug Henderson, a job developer at NMIC, the largest nonprofit in the area.
“It hits our community worse.”
On Oct. 21, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., NMIC is hosting a job fair with Christ Community United Church at the United Palace that will hopefully connect some of the unemployed jobseekers with at least entry level jobs.
“We’re very concerned at NMIC, and the United Palace is concerned,” Henderson said.
Farimani, Henderson and two other job developers through the Workforce Development office at NMIC serve about 1,200 people a year at their office, offering vocational training, interview workshops, job search help, resume building and job referrals. About 700 of those people find work through the agency.
“About 65 percent are looking for entry level positions,” Farimani said. “A lot of clients get above minimum wage, often even in the so-called entry level positions.”
Some of the employers who are expected to be at the job fair include the New York City Fire Department, Capitol One Bank – which is opening a branch on Dyckman Street and Broadway – Bravo Supermarket – with a new location on Broadway and W. 175th Street – Columbia University, Best Buy and Kaplan Test Prep and Admission.
Farimani said she did a similar fair in the Bronx and the line to get in stretched around the block. With the holiday season approaching, it’s likely there will be a tremendous response to this fair as well.
“We’ll probably have a lot more than can be served,” she said, adding that the agency will collect information from the job seekers who don’t get to meet the 50 or so employers who are expected to attend.
What: Job fair
When: Oct. 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: United Palace Theater
For more information call 212-822-8314.
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