MIDDLESBORO — Like many other students getting ready to graduate, 19-year-old Brittany Parks is looking for a job. Yesterday, she showed up at the job fair at the Middlesboro Community Center, which was held from 9 a.m. to noon, hoping her three months of unemployment would finally end.

To increase her chances of getting a job, Parks, who currently lives with her grandmother in Middlesboro, went back and got her GED, enrolled in Southeast Community College to pursue a degree in business, and will graduate very soon. While she said she was mainly looking for an office job, she applied to most of the employers set-up at the fair, including nursing positions at Britthaven and Middlesboro Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility, as well as First State Financial.

But, in reality, there just weren’t that many full-time jobs available at the fair for her to apply for.

First State Financial Vice President and Human Resources representative David Moore said that he was only hiring for two entry level positions — one’s that weren’t open yet, but that he expected would be available soon.

Over an hour into the job fair, Moore said it was “slow so far,” but he added, though, that he had already found some potential hires.

“I’m always looking for good applicants,” said Moore. “Quality, not quantity.”

While Middlesboro Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility were hiring 7-8 positions, most required training and certification in nursing. Human resources representative Sharon Smith said that narrowed down what was already an otherwise small turnout.

Middlesboro Councilman Lucas Carter said that he wished more employers could have turned out for the fair.

“There are so many job seekers, just not so many employers hiring,” said Carter, who also works in the local employment office and helped work the fair.

But it wasn’t all bad news for job hopefuls.

Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) students Bruce Bonner, 19, and Melanie Cucurullo, 20, came to the fair, both looking for summer work. They were in luck. Bell-Whitley Community Action Agency was hiring 186 positions for its income-based summer work program, “Let’s Go 2 Work,” which is part of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). The stimulus-intiated program will pump $6 million into 23 eastern Kentucky counties, according to a press release.

Job seekers also got some lessons from a local college to help them in their search. LMU sent their Economic Assistance Team to the fair to help instruct people in career transitions, regional job hunting, on-line database usage, resume writing, cover letter writing, how to complete applications, and interview preparation.

Business Professor Ron Dickinson spent the morning helping anyone who needed it with those skills. He said that most of the people he’d talked to didn’t know basic job skills like resume writing or interview preparation.

Southeast Community College also set up booth to help single mothers get off welfare.

And according to Carter, the Office of Employment and Training took applications for other employers who couldn’t make the fair, like Cumberland Gap Provisions, Duraline, and Cumberland Valley Contracting.

He said that Cumberland Gap Provisions was hiring hundreds of employees for a new plant coming sometime in either summer or fall of this year.

Overall, while the fair didn’t pull in the number Carter hoped, as long as people like Parks, Bonner, or Cucurullo are able to find jobs, the fair, from his perspective, was a success.

“With the way the economy is, we can’t expect a lot,” said Carter, regarding attendance at the job fair. “But if someone will hire five people, it would be worth it.”

Stephen Woodward is a Staff Writer for the Daily News. He may be contacted at swoodward@middlesborodailynews.com.