The Jungle
By Kemba J. Dunham
© Wall Street Journal
September 4, 2001
Fair Game
Despite the slowed economy, many employers still are showing up at diversity career fairs.
Bill May, Western regional recruiting director of Minolta Business Solutions, a unit of Minolta Corp. of Ramsey, N.J., has been attending more diversity career fairs lately. Yet he has cut back on other types of recruiting.
"We have a lot of offices that are centered around city areas and in those markets are very specific types of clients," says Mr. May, who is based in Cypress, Calif. "So we're really in need of candidates who are familiar with those backgrounds."
Joyce Murata, diversity outreach program manager at Sun Microsystems Inc., says the Palo Alto, Calif. Company has turned to such career fairs because they are a more effective way to reach a broader range of diverse candidates. "They allow us to effectively utilize our resources and increase our presence I the kind of communities that we want to work in," she says.
The fairs may present career or job opportunities to one or more minority groups including African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanics, women, disabled people and gays and lesbians.
Such interest keeps most organizers of diversity career fairs busy. Ken Wimberly, who organized April's National Job Fair Expo, says the Atlanta event attracted 269 employers, a record. Last year, 239 employers participated.
City Career Fairs, Los Angeles, which produces the "Diversity Employment Day Career Fairs" in various U.S. cities annually, is getting calls from big companies about next year's fair. The staff isn't surprised. "Diversity is recession-proof," they say.
Still, some diversity career fairs saw a drop in employer attendance this year. New York's Job Expo International, Inc. which hosts various types of job fairs, says only 40 employers attended its third annual diversity career fair in July. Last year, 70 participated.
