3rd Annual Career Fair Wrap-up

On Tuesday, Gus hosted his third annual Career Fair in Tampa. At a time when Floridians are facing double-digit unemployment rates for the first time in decades, the fair served as great opportunity for people in search of work to meet with more than forty potential employers in the Tampa Bay area.

FOX 13 Tampa has more:

TAMPA - Stephen Murphy got the notice a little more than a year ago: hisposition had been eliminated.

"For me it was the first time in 40 years that I wasn't working," said the computer engineer.

Murphy now works the job fair circuit, full time. That brought him to Tampa's Bayanihan Center Tuesday, where several employers and hundreds of workers took part in a career expo. People literally lined up.

"It seems to be very successful," said U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, the Tarpon Springs Republican whose office hosted the job fair. "We have twice as many employers out here this year than we did last year."

Murphy, a New Yorker who moved to Florida eight years ago, said he can feel the job market heating up.

"I see a couple opportunities, so I'm hopeful," Murphy said. "When I wasfirst laid off it was a cold as New York." Officially speaking, Murphy is among the country's chronically unemployed.

"It's been a long time," he said. "I'm dealing with it."

As he shook hands with recruiters and distributed resumes to prospectiveemployers, Murphy maintained a remarkably upbeat disposition.

It's a survival skill, he explained. "You can't come in moping and sulking," he said. "You really do have to show energy, attitude, a more upbeat presence. That's what they're looking for in people."