Ohio Means Jobs to hold multiple hiring events for job seekers

Ohio Means Jobs Lake County plans to hold three industry-specific hiring events March 8-10.

The agency, formerly known as Lake County One Stop Shop, is a group of public, private and nonprofit organizations that work together to provide assistance to job seekers and employers searching for employees.

Ohio Means Jobs Lake County’s services are free and available to anyone.

Services provided by the agency can range from assistance with putting together a resume to polishing interview skills and job placement services.

Every county in Ohio has an Ohio Means Jobs office and those seeking services can go to any one of them.

Ohio Means Jobs Lake County’s career center, located at 177 Main St. in Painesville, is equipped with 39 computers for public use for conducting a job search, filling out an online application, or working on a resume, Assistant Administrator Leslie Ryan said.

In addition, there are phones that clients can use to call about employment or unemployment, and fax machines to fax unemployment information or send documents to potential employers, Ryan stated.

Ohio Means Jobs Lake County also offers three workshops,

each once a month, on preparing a resume, interviewing skills and how to use social media to look for jobs along with other job-search strategies outside the norm, Ryan said.

“We also offer a basic computer skills class, because we are finding many job seekers don’t have basic computer skills,” she said.

The agency also provides services to companies seeking to hire employees by showing them how to list jobs on the Ohio Means Jobs posting boards, screening candidates and providing recruitment services.

Lake County’s Ohio Means Jobs offers anywhere from three to seven industryspecific hiring events each month now, instead of the one big annual job fair they used to do.

“We used to do just one a year and found out it just wasn’t meeting employer or job seeker needs,” Ryan said. “You didn’t know who was coming with what skill set and looking for what type of job. “So now we do smaller ones with specific needs.”

Using Ohio Means Jobs services is simple. Clients come in and explain their needs — if they’re underemployed unemployed, or seeking training. No appointment is necessary, Ryan said.

“We are trying to encourage people looking for work to come in,” she said.

The agency is averaging about 161 people using their services weekly and has successfully placed 73 unemployed people into jobs from July to December.