Aug. 28--Quite a few interested jobseekers checked out Wednesday's job fair sponsored by the Workforce Solutions for North Central Texas.

Hosted at the Southside Church of Christ in Mineral Wells, the goal was to help people find gainful employment.

"I'm just amazed at the response Mineral Wells has," said Claudia Bowden, the event's organizer and account manager for Parker and Palo Pinto counties. "This is wonderful. So far, from the employers we've gotten good remarks. They feel they're making progress."

Although Bowden didn't immediately know how many jobseekers attended the event, there were 32 employers who were hiring employees.

"It's already been extremely busy," said JoAnne Parker, of Family Care of Texas. Although Parker said she was only looking to fill a part-time position, she had a list of interested applicants.

"They will stay on file with me," she said. "As we grow our patient database, we'll be able to hire even more. ... Mineral Wells is that little diamond in the rough."

Gracie Maxwell came from Jacksboro to represent Corrections Corporation of America at the event. She said this was her first job fair.

"I think it's wonderful. I've got probably 10 applications," she said an hour into the event.

Maxwell said she "wasn't really sure" what to expect at the job fair.

"It was better than I thought it would be," she remarked.

As for the jobseekers, several were talking to company representatives and filling out applications.

Mineral Wells resident Amy Fox said she's been searching for employment since last month and the search had been hard. Fox is one of a number of local residents who will find themselves without a job after DRS Unmanned Technologies vacates Mineral Wells.

"There's not a whole lot in Mineral Wells, but this is really helping because I didn't know there were this many businesses looking," she remarked.

"I thought it was great. They need to do it more often," said Catherine Moe, of Mineral Wells. "There's more [employers] than I expected. I think networking was important here."

"I wish they had them more often," echoed another job seeker who declined to give his name. Holding a plastic bag from one of the employers present, he commented, "I didn't know what to expect. There was more employers than I thought. The last one I went to probably had three or four people hiring."

Moe said she's been looking off-and-on for a while but didn't find anything.

"All you can do is put yourself out there. Networking is important," she remarked. "It's really a positive thing for the community. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Just go out there and sell yourself."

The Mineral Wells Area Chamber of Commerce was also present at the event, sharing information about the community as well as provided information on a few additional job opportunities from local businesses.

"What strikes me is both the diversity of the positions our employers have available, as well as the diversity of the jobseekers," remarked Beth Watson, chamber director. "We have everything from entry level to highly skilled and professional and jobseekers to match it.

"To me, that just goes to show the strength of the economy of Mineral Wells."

"Whenever you can do a community service like this, I think it's positive," Bowden remarked. "One of the things I think is important in Mineral Wells is it has one of the lower unemployment rates in the state but that means there's still people who are unemployed and still looking."

According to Bowden, they hope to host another job fair in February.

According to the Texas Workforce Commission, Palo Pinto County's jobless rate is lower than the state and the national jobless rates. Of the 14,951 people in the county's labor force, 14,330 are employed while 621 people are unemployed, putting the jobless rate at 4.2 percent. The state jobless rate is 4.7 percent while the national percentage of joblessness is 5.7 percent.

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