Job fair extends hours as more than 2,000 turn out
ALEXA WELCH EDLUND/TIMES-DISPATCH
Kelly Williams, a member of the staff of Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, hands out water to job seekers waiting in line at Clover Hill High School in Chesterfield County.
A job fair in Chesterfield County today sponsored by Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, drew more than 2,000 people, prompting organizers to extend its hours from 1:30 p.m. until 3 p.m.
The job fair at Clover Hill High School, 13900 Hull Street Road, started at 9:30 a.m. and by 11 a.m. the line to get into the school stretched out the door and wrapped around the building. About 80 employers were on hand for the fair.
Cantor, a Republican leader in the House of Representatives, has been an outspoken critic of President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus package.
Asked if the number of job-seekers confirmed the need for a stimulus package, Cantor said the long lines showed the package was “a flop”.
The applicants, many of whom were well-dressed, middle-aged men who had lost their jobs in the recession, also had an opportunity to attend sesssions on resume writing and retaining health insurance.
Organizations at the fair included the Central Intelligence Agency and Northrop Grumman, the giant contractor involved in a dispute with the state over its performance on managing the government’s information technology.
Reader Reactions
Cantor’s so-called JOBS FAIR was a total flop! It amounted to nothing more than a public relations gimmic for ERIC CANTOR; HEY Y’ALL, I’m out here working hard for you. The one person that should have been standing in the hot sun looking for employment is Mr Cantor himself. He and his “PARTY OF NO” absolutely were on guard when this mess started, and now they are PROUD obstructionist of all efforts to turn things around. Why? If current proposals are not satisfactory, where are the Republican alternatives? If the long lines at the JOB FAIR sent any message at all, Eric Cantor will change his ways and start working, in a bi-partisan way to get this country running again. I would hope Mr Cantor learned, from the Job Fair, that the American people are hurting and need him to start working for THEM instead of the Republican Party. Ideological stubborness is not going to create a single JOB!!!
Jack,
With all due respect I really appreciate your comments on these posts. I have worked on every product with “U.S. manufacturers” you just listed in you write up in one form or another. In 25 years I can tell you from my experience REGULATIONS that I do support hurt U.S. industry.
However other countries do not come even remotely close to having to adhere to nor do they practice such rules and regulations enforced here in the U.S. So it’s not just salaries and medical insurance, it’s the playing field as well!
I find it sickening how some people for years abused our James River, wetlands, or environmental laws, etc. However when U.S. companies have paid fines for years compared to and because of the bad apples of mfg or due to uneducated EPA folks regarding a particular industry. Sorry, that WAS / IS a big problem!
We did not dump chemicals into the James like some companies. $130k for one document at a 25 person operation plus lawyer’s fee’s of $30k+ that had a flawless record for 20 years. Sorry, that’s a bad system. That amount alone would cover the company’s portion of health insurance coverage for that year.
But NO the rules are the rules, so we as “U.S.” small manufacturers will lose or have lost in part to our own government rules!
Micromanaging at it’s best, but who manages the manager? The so called government hen house EXPERTS. I have way too many examples from many sources I could add, but yes this one was personal.
Regards,
As for the national debt it went from about a trillion to 4.3 trillion during the Reagan and Bush terms. The last Bush took it from 6 to 11 trillion (so much for the myth of Republicans being fiscal conservatives). But that’s just history. What are we going to do now?
“Buy American” is a nice slogan but in the end we need sane government regulation of trade. The conservative economists will argue all day that trade restrictions will ruin our economy and stifle growth. Okay, so look where we are now. Our economy is completely wrecked.
They tell us it will be fine when people start borrowing and spending again… but there’s a negative savings rate so people need to save money or they’ll never be able to retire… but you have to borrow and spend to fuel the economy… but you have to save… and everything you’re buying is from overseas so that money is gone…
It’s an economic model that is doomed to failure.
Mark I don’t think all the unemployed are going to find jobs. Not jobs with acceptable pay and benefits. Those are gone. Even now those with very good education and qualifications are in the ranks of the unemployed. There is not much left for the majority of what was the middle class working in industry. That’s what’s so bad about this situation. Our economy depended on these workers spending their money. Now that has dried up. The recession is going to drag on and unemployment is going to rise and remain very high.
With the deficits that the Obama administration is stacking up the drain on our economy will just get much worse. People can’t spend money they don’t have. Economics 101.
The problem started years ago when citizens stabbed their fellow Americans in the back buying Japanese cars,(Toyota and Datsun). TV’s (remember when Zenith advertised they were 100 percent American made)? People ignored them and bought SONY. Thus the long decline of our auto and electronics manufacturing began. This was way before Bush so you liberal Obama lovers don’t even get started on that. Then came clothing. People flocked to buy clothing made in Taiwan, South Korea and finally China.
It was not the government but us citizens who shunned products made by our fellow Americans. Our family members, our neighbors. Now we are going to forever pay the price. Next time you get in your Japanese car, watch your Japanese tv and put on your Chinese clothes think about it.
If all of these people do get jobs, and we do get out of this recession and we get back to where we were three years ago, or even nine years ago then we’re still in big trouble.
With an $800,000,000,000 a year trade deficit (that is U.S. dollars going to other countries), much of that owed to communist China, how far can we go? China has so many dollars they hardly know what to do with them. If they wanted to and if we’d let them they could buy most of our major industries tomorrow. What this means is China owns us. Not “will own us”. But China owns us now, today.
And who do we have to thank for this? All those who supported “free trade”. You know who doesnt’ support “free trade”? China, Japan, etc.
Next time you see Cantor let him know about this. It’s very important.
Outsourcing and the displacement of U.S. manufactured goods and “jobs” started in my world between 15 to 20 years ago, not just the past 6 years. I only hope my son will enjoy all the wonderful opportunities this once great country had to offer. This will only happen if we make real changes in supporting and reinvesting in U.S. manufacturers based in the U.S.!
Not a handout or bailout, but a helping hand. Please support U.S. companies and manufacturers and the jobs will follow or in our case the jobs may return home.
My home, a once very proud Virginia manufacturer who placed a small sticker of the American flag on every product shipped out our door. For the 2% of business we had outside the U.S., the folks north of the border couldn’t stand that little sticker!
I wonder why?
It’s time to do an about-face and look out for OUR HOMELAND! ALL our representatives have to realize they need to lead and govern with the integrity needed to CHANGE, not own business like the two-faced countries we have invited into our homes!
Sincerely, Virginia Mfg out of business!
Jack, one problem with your response to my opinion, I’m not a Democrat. Also, what does my screen name have to do with anything? I never said I was representing anyone’s opinion but my own. I surely hope no one else posting here is representing anyone else. If they are we are truly in trouble. A lot of people got rich off of the sub-prime loans. This was more a poor business decision than a policy flaw. The companies took advantage of the public with the way they packaged and sold the loans. How can you justify putting someone in a $2000 a month mortgage knowing they can only avoid $900? I only fault the gov’t for not applying the appropriate protections. However we all seem to say we want the gov’t out of the way until something goes wrong and we can blame them. You have your opinion and I have mines. I still blame the Bush Administration for our current problems. During the Clinton Adminstration I enjoyed some economic freedom. During the Bush Adminstration I made more money but had less financial freedom. I just wasn’t rich enough to benefit from his plan. I still fill it’s too early to tell what impact the current adminstration will have, but I like the direction its going in terms of building the middle class. I don’t know enough about you to tell which class you fall under, but I hope for your sake and that of your family that it’s the upper-class. Corporate american isn’t hurting nearly as much as we are lead to believe. They are still turning huge profits, yet they move jobs and lay off workers. They blame taxes. Didn’t the Bush Adminstration give them all the tax breaks they wanted? Yet we are in the financial crisis we are experiencing today. I’m foolish because I want my elected officials to represent the people and not their policial party. If the idea is good for america, than support and for vote it. Don’t turn your nose up to it just because your party did not come up with it. I guess I’m just asking for too much. Maybe the current adminsitration can address some of the other issues in the next 6 months. Afterall, these issues were created by previous administrations prior to January 2009. At one point, they are saying that President Obama is doing too much and than he is not doing enough. I wonder how much more could be accomplished for the american people if he had support instead of politics as usual?
@Jack
President Obama has a proposal to penalize companies that outsource jobs and to give tax breaks to companies that keep jobs in America; of course Republicans are against this plan as usual. So what did Bush do to keep jobs in America Jack? Did he even propose anything? Even attempt anything? I can answer that for you NO.
I find it hilarious to hear people like Jack blame everything on Dodd and Frank, LOL, LOL, LOL!!!!
A republican in the WH, a republican controlled congress for the first 6 years of the Bush Administration, Dodd a Senator and Frank a rep in the minority party controlled everything for 8 years, LOL, LOL. Really, you truly belief that, I mean really?
Jack Glenn Beck is on, go get yourself some more unbelievable talking points. (Aka lies)
I guess some of us haven’t been brainwashed by the worship of the messiah.
Maybe it’s because we didn’t drink our Kool-Aid supplied by our liberal socialist democrat government.
I am always amused when ultra-conservatives blame the sub-prime crisis on the CRA. Just because bankers were prohibited from redlining certain neighborhoods doesn’t mean everyone else should be harassed into refinancing their conventional loan and cashing out all their existing equity. No wonder 1/3 of mortgages are now under water.
The premise of that argument is that the CRA forced bankers to become so stupid that they couldn’t zip up their own flies.
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