City of Memphis holds critical job fair

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The City of Memphis hosted a job fair to fill open positions, some of which are critical to the operation of city services, on Saturday.

With a large COVID-19 outbreak causing severe delays in ambulance services, this job fair held even more importance.

This week Memphis Fire Chief Gina Sweat said local paramedics were so stressed because of the current COVID-19 outbreak that at times, there have not been enough ambulances to respond to emergencies.

Today a City of Memphis job fair hoped to fill any holes in critical services.

For five hours on Saturday, the City of Memphis held a job fair inside the Greenlaw Community Center, hoping to get candidates that can fill dozens of openings.

The job fair was hosted by Memphis City Council Members Michalyn Easter Thomas and Cheyenne Johnson.

“I noticed that a lot of divisions had a lot of openings and the interesting thing to me was that as citizens, as we pay Memphis taxes, in every years budget we still allocate money for those positions whether they are filled or not,” Memphis City Council Member of District 7 Michalyn Easter-Thomas said.

There are dozens of jobs across several city divisions that need filling as soon as possible to provide quality city services.

“Code enforcement, solid waste, public works, waste water treatment, engineering division, everybody’s talking about speed humps and pedestrian safety, these are positions that we need to get filled,” Easter-Thomas said/

“If you don’t have individuals there in order to fill those spots, some of the services are lacking and then we get people who don’t understand why the trash is not picked up, why people are in violations of the different codes,” Memphis City Council Member of District 8 Cheyenne Johnson said.

The issue of open jobs was made more important this week with the city’s EMS services overloaded during the recent COVID-19 outbreak.

Representatives from the city recruiting on behalf of the fire department were on hand hoping to get applicants interested in open paramedic positions.

“Those single role paramedics, they don’t have to actually go out and fight fires but they are somewhat in the fire department, in the houses as well to go out and be able to handle those calls,” City of Memphis Senior Recruiter Carlos McCarney said

Overall, city recruiters say jobs with the city have competitive salaries and benefits as well as the added benefit of giving back to the community you live in.

“You’re engrained in the city by working with the city. You care about the city, you’re a part of the community in the city. So why not work for the city,” McCarney said.

“You see things every day that you contribute to, not only as an individual but as a whole and as a team,” Easter-Thomas said.

There may still be people who have lost their job during the pandemic and have not found employment.

City representatives say if you missed the job fair you can still apply online.

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