Employers clamor for job fair slots, hire on the spot - New York News | NYC Breaking News

Minnesota has been faring better than other states as the economy recovers, and evidence of that could be seen at Wednesday's job fair at the Mall of America, where companies were clamoring to talk to job candidates and hiring on the spot.

Hennepin County coordinated the job fair, and with 42 employers present, all the slots were sold out. In fact, organizer Jeff Hardin said they actually had to turn away recruiters on Wednesday morning because there wasn't enough room.

The health care industry has a huge number of job opportunities, and Melissa Aune, from Health Partners, told FOX 9 News they are looking to fill about 70 positions.

"We have everything from entry-level, office assistant type positions, registered nurse openings, director-level positions and specialty operations manager positions open in our clinics," she said.

Not surprisingly, the No. 1 question potential job applicants want answered is: What's the pay range of these positions?

"You know, it really depends on the skill level of the position we're looking for, but -- on average -- about $15 for an entry-level job to potentially $100,000 for one of our leadership-level positions," Aune said.

HMS, a catering company that works at the airport, was conducting on-site interviews -- even hiring applicants on the spot. According to Hardin, that's the first time he's seen that happen at a job fair in a long time.

Mediacom, a cable TV company is hiring, and Radioshack is too -- but Allina Hospitals has more than 800 openings, according to recruiter Rachel DeSchepper.

DeSchepper said some of the positions they need to fill include:

• Housekeeping
• Cooks
• Dietary aides
• Patient registration schedulers
• Customer service representatives

There still is fierce competition for many of the positions -- and 165,000 Minnesotans remain unemployed.