Looking back on a year of Neighborhood Career Fairs

It has been a year since Mayor Martin J. Walsh launched the Neighborhood Career Fair Series! We are very proud of our team's effort to host these events. The City of Boston needs to recruit employees that reflect the diversity the City has to offer. We knew that if we wanted to tap into 100% of the talent in Boston, we had to go to where the job seekers were. So we left City Hall and visited six of Boston's neighborhoods to recruit applicants. Here is what we found:

• We weren't the only ones looking for talent! More than 75 employers joined us in this recruiting drive. Some participated in one session, others participated in all. We welcomed homegrown local businesses, like Ace Hardware and Sierra Pools. We hosted legendary institutions, like the Boston Red Sox, Northeastern, and Harvard universities. We had large employers like the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the U.S. Postal Service. We worked with community organizations like More Than Words, Tenacity, and the YMCA of Greater Boston. These employers wanted to hire local people to make their organizations better. They met hundreds of you and had many enriching conversations.

• It is a great event to find a diverse pool of job seekers in Boston! In total, 41% of the job seekers in the Career Fairs identified as Black, 25% as Latinx, and 8% as Asian. Almost 49% of job seekers identified as female or non binary. We often hear employers who report struggling to recruit people of all backgrounds. Participating in the Career Fairs can be one tool to reach fantastic candidates! We look forward to hosting many new and repeat employers in events to come.

• Residents like the events! The majority of participants (85%) would recommend the event to a friend. They report having received useful information to advance their careers (80%). Also, more than 70% said they made a meaningful professional connection during the event. We will continue improving the series to provide the best possible experience to all.

• Employers like the events! When asked to rate their experience, almost 90% of employers say it was excellent or very good. More than 92% reported receiving excellent or very good support from the team. Almost 60% of them found candidates that were a good fit for their organizations. This is important news for job seekers! We have begun to hear great feedback about hired candidates as well. Because of this, many employers come to more than one event. In fact, more than 92% say they are likely or very likely to attend again.

The results are encouraging, so we intend to visit more neighborhoods this year. We have been in Roxbury, East Boston, Jamaica Plain, the Financial District, Charlestown, and Mattapan. Look for us in Dorchester, Chinatown, South Boston, and other places this year! Unemployment is low in Boston, but it is not equally low in every neighborhood. By bringing employers to under served parts of the City, we are working to close the gap. And that helps all of us.