South Padre Island to host job fair

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Looking for a job?

From retail and hotels to restaurants, several businesses in the Laguna Madre area are in search of hiring more employees.

The South Padre Island Chamber of Commerce will host a job fair with Island and Port Isabel employers on Tuesday, April 20, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the SPI Convention Centre, located at 7355 Padre Blvd.

On Tuesday, SPI Chamber of Commerce Marketing Director Dianna L. Harvill said close to 40 employers have signed up to participate in the job fair so far.

Signing up for a space at the job fair is free and employers are provided a table with two chairs.

The deadline for employers to sign up is Friday.

To sign up, employers need to email the SPI Chamber of Commerce at [email protected] or call (956) 761-4412.

Harvill said it’s new for the SPI Chamber of Commerce to host this event on its own.

In previous years, the Chamber of Commerce would host the job fair in conjunction with Workforce Cameron.

“Because of the pandemic, they are currently doing everything virtual and so, we just decided the convention centre is large enough to do an event like this and remain socially distanced,” Harvill explained. “We decided that face-to-face was something that we wanted to do for our community so the Chamber partnered with the Convention Centre and the Economic Development Corporation.”

Harvill said Chamber personnel encourage anyone who is looking for a job to visit the hiring event because there will be many opportunities.

She recommends attendees dress to impress and bring a resume or a list of their past work experience to make it easier to fill out applications on the spot.

“Our businesses are hurting, as a lot of communities are right now,” Harvill said. “Definitely right now, the Island and Port Isabel are in desperate need of employees so (we) definitely want to get the word out to those employees to be sure and come down and be ready to get a job.”

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