Returning home, a promising prospect: hundreds of jobs showcased at career fair.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: SKILLED TRADES

It was a bit of shock for Linda Luszczak to have to dust off her resume and go job-hunting after 11 years.

She was a production supervisor at Arclin Canada in Thunder Bay and became one of 28 employees to lose their jobs last fall after the resin adhesives manufacturer entered creditor protection. Nov. 11-Remembrance Day - was her last day.

"It's not easy" getting back into the workforce," said Luszczak, who was one of 217 job hunters to walk through the doors of the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium to check out prospects at the Holiday Career Festival Dec. 23.

The second annual event was staged by Ambassadors Northwest and the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce. She made her way to the booths of 28 potential employers and came away feeling upbeat with some good leads, including a possible job she was applying for in early January.

"I talked to everybody that was there," said Luszczak, rhyming off a list of exhibitors such as financial institutions, health sciences and long-term care facilities, engineering and technology firms, the City of Thunder Bay, Bombardier and Wasaya Airways.

The economic impact of Thunder Bay's layoffs in forestry has rippled throughout the community but she discovered there are definitive signs of growth in other sectors.

"In Thunder Bay, there have been so many challenges with various closures, so it was encouraging to talk to some of these people and see that there are some jobs out there," said Luszczak. Educated with a bachelor of science, she had been steadily upgrading her skills by taking some certified general accounting courses on the side. She wasn't restricting herself to landing another processing job.

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"I'm going to look everywhere."

Some of her former co-workers at the job fair, who were also scouting for work, felt the same way, she said.

"They're excited about doing something different and seeing what's out there and making contacts."

It's that kind of hope and opportunity that the business community wants to showcase as a way of permanently luring back ex-pats with some solid job offers. Businessman Jim Peterson is out to dispel the urban myth that there are no jobs in Thunder Bay. At summertime weddings, he listened to young people, who had graduated and moved elsewhere, complain about the lack of jobs in the city and therefore felt no reason to move back.

Through his community contacts, Peterson discovered many law and accounting firms were having a tough time on the...