By Dianne Anderson

Job seekers will break out their stylish power suits to check thousands of work opportunities around town – from the lowest entry level positions to the highest professional careers.

Everyone is invited out, shake a hand, and hopefully, get the offer.

Dr. Nosakhere Thomas with the Inland Empire Black Worker Center sees plenty of career opportunities in water. Last year, five of the center’s students landed full-time employment, and six in internships with the water industry, of which the center collaborates.

He said it represents the types of jobs opening up as more baby boomers start to retire, or attrition through lost workforce during the pandemic, and there is a real need for workers in the next 10 to 15 years in several fields.

“And that’s part of our marching orders to prepare folks. It’s not just about the work we want to do. We’re looking at the need within the industry as well across the board,” he said.

Aviation is another wide open field. At a recent training, he learned there are about 2.5 million aviation jobs nationwide now open, from pilots to engineers to flight attendants, but many in the Black community are not aware of the opportunities.

As he finishes up his current IEBWC class, he is preparing to help get more janitors into better jobs in K-12 and healthcare. He likes seeing more job fairs, and even plans his own organization job fair for next spring, but he is concerned that Black hires are not keeping pace with other groups.

Surveys, even at the state and national level, include job seeker data, but often don’t consider those being turned away, underemployed or those working multiple jobs.

“We have a little ways to go,” he said.

From last April, the jobs gap narrowed, a good sign for Black workers, but the numbers are still nearly double the unemployment rate of all groups. According to the second quarter state unemployment rates, unemployment was at 4.5% for all groups, but 7.4% for Blacks. White workers were the least unemployed at 3.8%.

Thomas is also concerned about controversial race detection software, now used by many companies. It weeds out candidates based on face recognition, culturally identifiable first names and surnames.

“From our take, the hires haven’t changed. The number of good paying jobs available with good companies, those with high roads [careers] are still difficult to get in. The electronic system weeds us out because of certain code language,” he said.

Since 2019, the Brookings Institute raised a red flag at potential racist algorithms in artificial intelligence software in analyzing language, resumes, transcribed interviews with bias against women and people with disabilities.

“Speech recognition models have demonstrated clear biases against African Americans and potential problems across dialectical and regional variations of speech. Commercial AI facial analysis, aside from being largely pseudoscientific, has shown clear disparities across skin color and is highly concerning for people with disabilities,” according to the Brookings report – Auditing Employment Algorithms for Discrimination.

In Moreno Valley, job fairs are also held every quarter at the Business & Employment Resource Center (BERC), which regularly hosts informational classes, seminars, webinars to get participants on the career path.

On Monday, September 18, participants can come out to BERC to learn how to get in on the ground floor as apprentices.

On Thursday, September 21, the community is also invited to their big regional job fair to meet face to face with over 70 employers from Moreno Valley and the Inland Empire. That event runs from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., at Moreno Valley Conference & Recreation Center at 14075 Frederick Street.

City spokesperson Matthew Bramlett said their job fairs usually draw a couple of hundred job seekers. The event is held at the ballroom in the center, where booths are set up for employers, and workers can get on path to a prospective new career.

“People are free to peruse the area, talk to employers. We’ll also have a workshop by a local vendor VA, that teaches people how to access your VA benefit, resume writing, how to start your own business, and other really cool information sessions that can make you stand out,” he said.

Ongoing hiring events are held in San Bernardino County. Monthly, the county’s workforce development board puts on three to four hiring events, managed at the America Job Centers of California (AJCC), one of three locations in the county, including San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga and Victorville.

On Thursday, September 28, that hiring event runs from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., located 14400 Bear Valley Road #ste 735 in Victorville. On Thursday, October 5, another hiring event runs from 9:00 a.m. to noon at East Valley America’s Job Center of California, located at the Inland Center Mall.

Brad Gates, San Bernardino County Workforce Development Director, said it’s a job seekers market and employers are looking to fill several hundreds of jobs. Their events regularly draw 200 to 400 job seekers to meet up with 30 to 50 employers and businesses.

“There’s a variety of employers that participate. Manufacturers, logistics, health care agencies, education agencies, professional services, and firms,” he said.

Ranging from entry-level or some work experience to more higher positions with wages, he said the jobs run the gamut. Several sectors are trending in the region that offer a good living wage.

“Public safety is a huge need right now, in law enforcement, fire departments, paramedics, EMT’s. There’s a huge demand for those kinds of occupations, generally very well paying positions,” he said.

Healthcare offers many career pathways that can start at entry level and work up to career advancement.

“I always encourage people to look at that field because there is a lot of room for growth, that’s one sector that is always going to be in high demand,” he said.

For those shifting into different lines of work, AJCC also trains, retrains, and hosts mock interviews to get workers ready to compete. At the job fair, workers can access all sectors, healthcare companies, manufacturing and logistics, public safety and education agencies.

On the spot interviews and conditional job offers are typical, pending background checks. For the best impression, job seekers should come dressed professionally.

He said there are a lot of opportunities.

“Be confident, approach the employer’s table, shake their hands, make eye contact, speak well and be open and ask them what job positions they have available,” he said. “Bring copies of their resume, be prepared to take business cards, and possibly complete applications on the spot.”

For more information on San Bernardino job fairs, see https://workforce.sbcounty.gov/

For information on IEBWC, see  https://www.iebwc.org/

To see the Brookings Institute report,  https://www.brookings.edu/articles/auditing-employment-algorithms-for-discrimination/