Career opportunities were knocking for more than 100 laid-off timber mill and forestry workers at a jobs expo in Tokoroa.
Ironically, one of the companies touting for workers was the Swedish-owned contracting company ABB, hired to help run the Kinleith pulp and paper mill after Carter Holt Harvey laid off
390 workers there in late 2001.
ABB was looking for qualified people, including electricians, fitters and instrument technicians, to start at Kinleith early in the new year.
A further eight companies, educational and social organisations, and the South Waikato District Council and Economic Development Trust combined their resources in an effort to find jobs for the town's redundant workers, many of whom were laid off from Carter Holt Harvey's Tokoroa sawmill on Friday.
The company laid off 91 workers and seven contractors, after losing $16 million over the past five years and $7 million this year.
South Waikato Mayor Gordon Blake, who helped organise the expo, said it was a great success.
About 120 workers from the mill and other sectors of Tokoroa's forestry industry, as well as 40 of their partners and other job seekers, attended the event, which featured stalls and presentations from a line-up of potential employers and skills and careers advisers.
Among them was the Department of Corrections, which will have 13 vacancies for corrections officers at Waikeria Prison from next month, and the National Road Carriers Association, which has hundreds of jobs available nationwide.
A potential 200 jobs in the Taupo area were being advertised by employment agency Exort.
Mr Blake said that although it was difficult to estimate the number of job-seekers who found work through the expo, the signs were encouraging.
National Road Carriers Association executive officer Bert Riley said he had distributed 25 job registration forms to people interested in a driving career.
Bruce Wakefield of Advanced Skill, who was looking for 20 people to start work at the Crusader Meats processing plant in Bennydale, said: "I'm glad we have got such a great response."
- NZPA
