Written by Suha Zakiuddin
People looking for job opportunities in Athens-Clarke County can find help from local employment agencies, but might experience setbacks due to the current economic climate.
The Athens-Clarke County Human Resources Department is currently only filling positions that are mission-critical, said Jackie Rains, the employment administrator.
Mission-critical positions consist of those that, if not filled, pose a severe impact on the community and affect the level of safety expected by the community and the government, said Rains. These jobs are related to the police workforce.
To get this type of job, applicants must be recommended by the human resources director and then approved by the Athens-Clarke County Unified Manager.
When asked about the current employment levels in Athens, Rains sounded positive. She said that the county has not experienced a significant amount of layoffs and that human resources has not seen the increase in unemployment that was expected with the slow economy.
“People are holding on to their jobs. Turnover has flowed way down,” said Rains. “It’s a good thing.”
However, local agencies that offer temporary employment opportunities have experienced a different employment trend due to the economy.
These agencies provide temporary short-term and long-term employment opportunities to people looking for jobs and can help candidates in two ways. One method is by matching companies looking for applicants to candidates who fill the position requirements. The other is by matching people who contact the agency with jobs that fit their needs. Some of the temporary positions can become permanent.
One temporary employment agency, Manpower Temporary Services, also helps students who are looking for jobs. For example, a marketing company in Athens is currently offering positions to students who can work over the summer for 40 hours a week.
In regards to the economy, Manpower found that during the last quarter, the quality of people looking for employment went up considerably, said Jane Oliver, the branch manager. This is due to companies cutting back on the number of employees or closing because of the slow economy, therefore, laying off qualified individuals.
On a positive note, in this quarter, companies are finding that business is picking up, so the demand for employees is increasing, said Oliver.
Branch manager Patsy Boyd at Top Notch Personnel, Inc., another staffing agency located in Athens, was not so positive about the current employment situation.
She said that employment opportunities for candidates are the “worst it’s ever been.” In a trend that began last year, there has been a decrease in the number of companies calling in for temporary employees. The trend has worsened this year.
But Boyd and Oliver are hopeful.
According to Oliver, “We love what we do here. It is so gratifying to help someone find a job that they are happy with. If they walk out of here with a smile on their face it is extremely gratifying.”
For more information about the human resources department, visit www.athenshr.com. For help finding a job, the phone number for Manpower Temporary Services is 706-208-0700 and for Top Notch Personnel, Inc., 706-369-9151.
Edited by Sara Spigener
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Suha and Sara:
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of good information in this story, and I like that you offer contact information for people who want to learn more.
I'm a little confused about the focus of the story. If you're writing about the hiring climate for private businesses, the two temp agencies make sense. The Athens-Clarke Human Resources Department would only oversee employees who work for the county government, so in a sense it's just another employer. Jackie Rains' prominence in the story makes it seem like she's providing some kind of county-wide overview of the hiring climate, but that's not what she has to offer. It would be good to report how many people the county employs, though, and how many open positions are currently going unfilled.
A good source for an overview of the hiring climate might be the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce, which has most local businesses as members and which could offer a broader perspective on how business hiring is going. You could also check with the U.S. Labor department for the latest unemployment numbers in this area.
When you're writing an overview story like this one and using a few sources as examples, it's helpful to summarize the main findings of the story before going into specifics with any one source. So before you get to the "mission-critical" stuff from Athens-Clarke, you'd want a couple of graphs fleshing out the general employment picture from your lead. Then the examples are more clearly small pieces of the larger puzzle you're putting together for readers.
Sara, you asked me about capitalization earlier. Capitalizing the Human Resources Department is correct, because it's a proper name for a government office. The Athens-Clarke County unified manager wouldn't be capitalized here, because it's a job title without a name attached.