800 construction workers sought, Employ Milwaukee job fair

MILWAUKEE - It’s almost construction season in Wisconsin, and more projects creates a big need for employees. A workforce construction trades job fair was held at Employ Milwaukee Thursday, March 24, with 800 workers sought.

Good friends Malik Green and Okeith Payne have been looking for trades jobs.

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"I’ve been trying to get into a trade job over the past year, and I felt like today was a great opportunity," said Payne. "I’m really eyeing out that operation engineer job."

At Employ Milwaukee's job fair, they took advantage of multiple employers being in one place.

"We’re excited that we can connect the dots with having the employers be here and having prospective jobseekers come in and connect and be able to have conversations with these employers," said Chytamia Brown, Employ Milwaukee.

If you hadn’t noticed, Milwaukee has a lot of big construction projects in the works.

"We have the Barrett Lowe Couture project on the lake," said Randy Crump, Prism Technical. "It’s a new 44-story apartment building, multi-modal station, which is streetcar and rapid transit buses. There's the Wisconsin Center expansion, and last is the Innovation 1 project which is in Wauwatosa."

Staffing these projects is crucial in order to get them done quickly.

"We’re looking for everything from construction laborers, masonry, plumbers, carpenters, elevator constructors, you name it," said Crump.

In addition to info booths, two informational meetings took place, explaining the paid training and schooling required for the jobs.

Company representatives said they want people to remember that construction is a place for women, too.

"These opportunities are going to continue in construction, and to see more and more women get excited about the things that they can do and the things they can achieve, and grow and develop in this industry is just amazing," said Yvette Stevens, Gilbane Building Company.