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Rising Crime, Unemployment-a Focus of 2006 Norton Job Fair
August 7, 2006
Washington, DC-The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that Norton's 9th Annual Job Fair, open only to D.C. residents, will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, August 8, 2006, from 11 AM to 4 PM at the Washington Convention Center, located at 7th and Mount Vernon Place, NW. Norton said, "At our D.C. residents-only job fair, residents will have a first crack at jobs in the city and region before being overwhelmed by the much larger numbers of job applicants from the region, who already get the overwhelming number of jobs in the District." From 10 to 11 AM, Norton Job Fair 9 also will feature workshops on completing federal and D.C. government job applications, preparing a resume, interviewing skills, and dressing for success. The Job Fair usually draws thousands of job seekers, but residents do not wait in long lines because employers are spread out in an expansive area at the Convention Center.
Norton said that she was especially worried about rising unemployment here, a special focus of this year's Job Fair. Although the District's seasonally adjusted June 2006 unemployment rate declined by 0.3 percent to 5.4 percent, an increase in residents without jobs resulted in an increased unemployment rate of 7.0 percent when not seasonally adjusted. However, the seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate in June 2006 was 4.6 percent, unchanged from the May 2006 rate. "Fortunately, our Job Fair comes this year in the midst of the city's crime emergency. The ingredients for reducing crime are multiple and complex, but we know that people who have regular jobs are rarely found among the criminals that rob, steal and terrorize our neighborhoods. Our Job Fair is available to all D.C. residents, but the importance of a job at this time is worth remembering, especially for young men and women who live in neighborhoods where some jobs are rare, and for that reason, ‘recruiters' for criminal activity think they will be successful."
The Norton Job Fair will feature more than 90 employers recruiting for a wide range of jobs at every level throughout the region. Employers will include a variety of private employers from the city and the region such as JW Marriott Hotel, Montgomery College and Pepco; federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, Small Business Administration and the State Department; local government agencies such as the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation and the District of Columbia Courts; and medical institutions such as Washington Hospital Center, Stoddard Baptist Nursing Home and American Association of Homes & Services for the Aging. Many law enforcement agencies will be recruiting.
Norton holds this job fair annually as part of her push for jobs, a major feature of her service in Congress. The Congresswoman's emphasis on jobs led to the D.C. land transfer bill, expected to pass this session; to her Southeast Federal Center bill, which is reclaiming 57 acres of prime federal land for jobs and housing for the District; and to her agreement with the General Services Administration for the employment of D.C. residents on all federal construction and renovations here.
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