TONAWANDA, N.Y. — On Tuesday, hundreds of former Sumitomo Rubber Plant employees met with potential employers at a big job fair in Tonawanda.
Last month's plant closure left more than 1,500 people looking for new jobs. During the job fair, people were able to connect with more than 100 companies all under one roof.
"It's a good feeling knowing that people are out there thinking about you and looking out for you," said former Sumitomo employee Travis Szewczyk.
"I was impressed. I didn't think it would be this many jobs. This many decent jobs at that," said former Sumitomo employee Andrew Williams.
Former Sumitomo Rubber Plant employees came out in large numbers for the job fair, sponsored by the New York State Department of Labor. They told us they appreciate the outpouring of support, but as always, any job search comes with challenges.
"You've got to actually go out and do stuff, or you're going to realize you've been sitting out for a long time, and time flies by, but you have to move," said former Sumitomo employee Dontay Byrd.
"There's tons of jobs here, but we can't necessarily afford to take some of these jobs," said Szewczyk.
"It's difficult because we had careers. We had jobs that we didn't think that we were going to be training for a new position in a few years or even in a next week. But there is a lot of positions open. A lot of support definitely from the local places, and hopefully we'll find something that leads to a career that can help us provide for our families and make up for this horrible ending of the year," said former Sumitomo employee Michael Reed.
Scott Laing is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Finance at the University at Buffalo. He said it's an unfortunate reality that companies typically make cost cutting decisions right before the end of the year.
"So that they look good on the bottom line for the fiscal year," Laing said. "Following the pandemic, a lot of companies over-hired essentially, and they brought in a lot of workers, and we're starting to see cost-cutting measures be implemented by a lot of these companies now."
But, people leaving the job fair, said they're hopeful about the future.
"Today was good. It opened our eyes. All these jobs out here, it was perfect for us. Not knowing where to go, like, especially guys who, not just us, guys who've worked here longer. Ten, twenty years. So it's really good for them as well," said Dontay Byrd.
If you weren't able to make it out to the job fair, the New York State Department of Labor has resources available.