Upcoming job fair will feature thousands of open positions

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Thousands of jobs are up for grabs at an annual job fair being held at Harrison Middle School in southwest Albuquerque from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday.

This isn’t the first time Sen. Michael Padilla geared up to help serve his community with an annual job fair.

"My sisters and I, we grew up in extreme poverty, and so we always try to give back in some way to our community, that’s why I serve in the state Senate," Padilla said.

Almost 100 employers are hoping to fill more than 4,000 open positions. Many of the employers are restaurants.

“We have a lot of restaurants participating this year, I mean some restaurants, unfortunately, after we reopened as a state, couldn’t reopen their restaurant for lunch because they just didn’t have employees,” Padilla said.

Mario’s Pizza Owner Eddie Burgarello told KOB 4 last week that his restaurants are severely short-staffed.

"Now that the dining rooms are open, we can’t get any servers and cooks and other employees. It’s very difficult,” he said.

But you won’t find just restaurants on the list of employers looking for workers, the Albuquerque Police Department will also be at the job fair, along with Albuquerque Public Schools and Heritage Hotels.

"We saw a huge surge of traffic, it’s just that we didn’t have the staff available to ramp up as fast as the demand hit us," said Adrian Perez, president of Heritage Hotels and Resorts.

Padilla said with so many different companies hiring, this is a good time for people to explore new career opportunities.

"You have to start somewhere. I look back when I started my career, I didn’t know anything about the company I went to work for, and it turned into an entire career for me, and so I hope that we can make those connections at this job fair because you just never know," he said.

Dress to impress, and resumes are not required but could be helpful. Job seekers are asked to bring a paper and pencil.

"Some companies are going to be hiring right there on site, so you really do need to come down tomorrow," Padilla said.