At job fair, Latinos seek signs economic conditions are changing

LAWRENCE -- They are both 20 years old and unemployed. He speaks only Spanish. She's bilingual.

They have a 6-month-old baby, Roberto Rivera .

Last week, Cesar Rivera and Mia Muñoz were among some 1,500 Latinos looking for jobs or simply exploring career paths at the Latino Career Expo at the Elks Lodge on Andover Street in Lawrence. From Home Depot to Prudential Financial Services, around 35 businesses gave Latino residents tips on how to find jobs with their companies. Some attendees were offered job interviews.

There were even representatives from the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Army looking for a few good Latino applicants.

For Rivera and Muñoz living in Haverhill, the networking was important. They are pressed for money. ``Dad needs a job because . . . formula. It's expensive," said Muñoz, who is a full-time student at Northern Essex Community College. ``So are diapers."

In the last 15 years, the Latino population has jumped by more than 50 percent in the Merrimack Valley. Seventeen percent of the valley's 320,000 residents are Latino, compared to 7 percent statewide.

One out of every eight Latino residents in Massachusetts lives in the area, with the city of Lawrence, where about 70 percent of the residents are Latino, having the highest percentage in the state.

But in that time, the region has suffered economically due to large-scale layoffs and plant shutdowns.

In the area of the valley around Lawrence, the unemployment rate in April was 7.3 percent, according to Merrimack Valley Workplace Investment Board. That compares to 4.7 percent for the state. The Merrimack Valley also is below the state average in the number of adults with a high school diploma and those with a college education.

If all of this is going to change, the economic conditions of the region's Latinos have to change, said Eddie Crespo , principal/director of the Crespo Group, a multicultural marketing group.

His group and the Spanish-language weekly newspaper El Mundo are sponsoring Latino Career Expo events around the state to expose Latinos to different career opportunities and encourage area businesses to hire more Latinos, he said.

Crespo said the events are a good way to make connections. ``We don't want Latinos just to get jobs," said Crespo, ``we want them to develop careers."

In addition to the job fair, there were bilingual workshops on how to build a résumé and handle a job interview. Area colleges also had booths to inform attendees about educational programs.

Walking around the expo were older workers with large families looking for a better job and just-out-of-school teenagers still unsure of a career path. Christian J. Ramos , 18, came prepared with a stack of résumés. The recent graduate of Greater Lawrence Technical High School said the expo was one of the best job fairs he's attended. ``Right now I'm really looking to get experience in something I might not know of," said Ramos after talking to BAE Systems. ``I'm really open to any kind of work."

Ramos, a Lawrence resident, plans on attending Northern Essex Community College in the fall and wants to study graphic design.

Clarice Boyd , a senior recruiter at Sovereign Bank, said the bank met with a variety of candidates with different skill sets.

``I brought about 150 job sheets and now I have about 50 left," said Boyd after two hours into the four-hour event. ``I was here last year and I think I made six or seven hires from the event." She was encouraging candidates to apply for jobs online.

Boyd said the expo was key for businesses like Sovereign Bank. ``It's very important because we are in the Hispanic community," she said. ``In this area, many of our branches have a Hispanic customer base."

Alicia Melo , a recruiter with UPS, said they were flexible in who they could hire because most of their openings were part time. ``Our company has a lot to offer, with benefits [and] education," said Melo. ``You don't need much experience for the entry level positions. Opportunities grow from there."