The line at the Harbor Bridge job fair wrapped around the interior perimeter of Sunrise Mall as thousands of hopeful workers waited to turn in applications. Photo by JoAnna Kopp
About 5,000 workers lined up recently to apply for about 700 available jobs to build the new Harbor Bridge. The project held a hiring event at Sunrise Mall on Oct. 14, attracting workers for an array of open skilled labor positions from welder to field engineer.
The event started at 9 a.m., but people were lined up outside the mall before 7 a.m. By noon, the line of hopefuls wrapped around the interior perimeter of the mall, even weaving through empty department stores.
Lorette Williams, public information coordinator for the Harbor Bridge Project, said the job fair exceeded expectations.
“Five thousand people showed up,” she said. “We were expecting between 500 and 1,000.”
Applicants in line registered their attendance, filled out a pre-application with Texas Workforce Solutions and dropped off résumès. Hundreds were brought into on-site pre-interviews.
“I would say it was obviously very successful with the amount of attendees,” Williams said. “It was positive to see that many people interested in working on this project. And at the end of the day, we had a wide variety of applications.”
The $900 million Harbor Bridge Project will bring 500-700 new jobs to Corpus Christi over the life of the five-year project, she told Corpus Christi Business News. She expects the new jobs to provide a positive boost to the local economy by infusing new dollars.
“Our goal is to hire as many locally as possible,” Williams said. “As long as there are individuals here that meet the qualifications and have the right certifications, those are the first people we look at. If not, that’s when we have to look regionally.”
Williams said that there will be future job fairs in early 2017. For more information, visit harborbridgeproject.com.
