By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D) from Selma announced in a written statement that the Fifth Annual Congressional Job Fair will be held on Thursday, August 11, 2016 in Birmingham. The Seventh Congressional District job fair will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center (BJCC) in Birmingham. The job fair will be in the North/South Exhibition Halls of the BJCC at 2100 Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard in Birmingham. The BJCC is right off of Interstate 20/59 just east of the junction with Interstate 65.
Employer participants include, but are not limited to: the Coca Cola Bottling Company, Alabama Power, UAB, UAB hospital, Regions Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield, VA Medical Center, Mercedes-Benz International, Home Depot, the US State Department, Sheraton Hotels, the Alabama Department of Corrections, and many more. 125 employers will be present.
Admission is free and is open to all Alabama residents.
Rep. Sewell said on social media, “Come out to our 5th annual Job Fair in #Birmingham at the BJCC on Thursday August 11, 2016 from 10am-2pm. Come dressed to impress! See you there!! Spread the word!”
Rep. Sewell sponsored her first job fair in 2012. Over 100 employers including the City of Birmingham, Best Buy, Verizen, AT&T, the US Army, UAB, etc were on hand to take applications from over a thousand job seekers at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC).
Unemployment has decreased in Alabama since the depths of the Great Recession, but there are still too many jobless Alabamians. The official unemployment number does not include the underemployed, people who have given up looking for work and youth just trying to enter the work force.
The first job fair was very successful in drawing attendees and probably drew more than the planners were prepared for. Over a thousand job seekers turned out to the Birmingham event.
For more information call Sewell’s district office at 205-254-1960.
Congresswoman Terri Sewell represents Alabama’s Seventh Congressional District.
According to 2010 Census data the Seventh Congressional District of Alabama is the fifth poorest congressional district in the country. Median household income was only $26,672. New York’s Sixteen District with a median household income of $19,311 was the poorest. Since her election in 2010 Sewell has used the job fairs as a way to try to increase constituents’ employment, which, if successful, will have a dramatic effect on those poverty statistics.
Representative Sewell is the only Democrat in Alabama’s Congressional delegation.
