Opportunities Near and Far For Choctaw County

ACKERMAN, Miss. (WCBI)- Dressed for success with polished resumes in hand, dozens of people showed up at the Choctaw County Community Center, hoping to find work. Angela Paine was one of them.

“It offers resources to companies from the area, outside the area, even you know out of state opportunities,” said Paine. “And you know jobs are of course are kind of scarce in this area especially, so it’s just a good connection to resources that we wouldn’t have normally.”

This year’s Governor’s Job Fair saw its largest turnout of vendors with 23 companies recruiting qualified workers.

Enterprise’s Executive Director, Lara Bowman, says some of the companies set up shop every year because they know they’ll meet quality candidates.

“Word has spread about our qualified workforce,” said Bowman. “And we have the same vendors coming back year after year because they’re able to find qualified applicants and interview and hire them on the spot today.”

Many of these companies say the job fair is also an opportunity to market their business to the public.

“We had a great turn out last year,” said Tina Lee. “And the more that we get our name out there more that people know that we’re in business and that we’ve been there for over 40 years.”

Bowman hopes to hear some of the same success stories she’s heard in the past: local people landing jobs to provide for themselves and their families.

“At the end of the day that’s what it’s about,” said Bowman. “We want every person that is living here in the enterprise to have a job and to be able to have a better quality of life here.”