Wednesday, Mar. 25, 2009

Fair courts health care job seekers

Clayton — Johnston Health held a job fair last week to help fill about 90 positions in its soon-to-be completed Clayton hospital.

The fair was a bright spot in a county where the jobless rate hit 9.8 percent in January, the highest rate since unemployment spiked at 14.5 percent in 1983.

“In the medical field, there’s always a job,” said Blanchie Hubbard, a certified nursing assistant with the Wake County Health Department. She had come to look for a way to earn more money.

More than half of the Clayton hospital jobs are licensed clinical positions, and last week’s fair was focused on those jobs. The specialization of the jobs didn’t deter the number of job hunters; before the doors opened at 3 p.m., about a dozen certified nurses and other health professionals were lined up outside The Clayton Center. By 5 o’clock, 140 people had already passed through, estimated Doug Harrison, the hospital’s director of employment and recruitment.

Job hunters clad in suits and nurses’ clothes wandered the area, shaking hands and sampling green cookies and punch. Green is the hospital’s signature color, but the fair also fell on St. Patrick’s Day.

Johnston Health, which also has a hospital in Smithfield, is one of just three Johnston employers with more than 1,000 workers, according to figures published by the county last year. “Health care is growing in general while other industries are contracting,” said Dr. Tom Ricketts, director of the rural health research program at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research.

But despite growth in health care, some medical workers have found the job market tighter than they expected.

“It’s actually a little tough right now,” said Jenise Finfrock, a Cary radiologist who attended the job fair. Aimee Martel, also a radiologist, moved to Raleigh after finishing school in Florida.

“I have family in Raleigh, and I thought it would be easier to find a job here,” she said. “If you’re a nurse, you’re not having a problem right now.”

“But we’re not nurses,” added Finfrock.

Ricketts said the pair’s difficulty finding jobs might stem from an excess of radiologists and other specific positions. “You see a problem, you train up a lot of people; that creates perhaps a temporary surplus,” he said, adding that medical workers are mobile and easily retrained to other needs.

Finfrock said she would like to get in at the Clayton hospital while it was in its early phases.

“I think there’s a position here,” she said. “Get in while it’s still growing.”

Harrison, the hiring chief, said the hospital hoped to hire some of its staff from around town, and he added that many applicants were excited about the new building’s location, which is on N.C. 42 West.

“They’re working in Raleigh and different areas, looking for a shorter commute,” he said. “We wanted to hire in Clayton; they’re vested in their community.”

Ricketts said local hospitals and clinics can have a tight relationship with their host economies. “In one sense, you can look at it as any other economic activity,” he said. “There are services that are provided, and they have value; it also brings in funds that people pay out to insurance and taxes that cycle back into the community in the form of wages and purchases that tend to keep the economy going.” Jackie Ring, the Clayton hospital’s chief operating officer, was relieved to see a good turnout for the fair.

“You always worry if you’ll be able to find the right people,” she said.

Ring added that she had received many applications but was unsure if the state of the economy had inflated the number of workers on the market.

Cindy Read, another applicant, hoped the Clayton hospital would be her chance to break in to the industry.

She moved to Clayton from Colorado last year but hasn’t had much luck finding medical work.

Read did volunteer work and worked in schools while training to become a medical assistant. She said she had trouble because most jobs required paid experience.

“Then I’m thinking I might as well go back to school and waste more money and time,” she said, frustration creeping into her voice.

New staff for the medical center will begin training in August to prepare for the scheduled October opening.