MONTEGO BAY, St James — Employers and organisers of a job fair held in this western city last Friday were left disappointed as only about 60 applicants showed up to vie for vacancies at 22 participating enterprises.

“We brought management basically because we thought we would have seen a massive turn out and we even had some people on standby, just in case things got overwhelming,” a representative for a major hotel told the Jamaica Observer at the event.

The woman, who opted not to be identified by name or employer, said 12 applicants registered and six showed up. She questioned whether the event, part of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (MBCCI) Expo 2022, had been effectively promoted.

There was a similar concern from a recruiter for a guest services entity.

“We were expecting more candidates, we are still trying to figure out how it was advertised ’cause I doubt if 50 candidates came today,” she lamented.

The job fair was touted as one of the main features of the expo, with town criers spreading the word and shuttle buses being made available to ferry the expected throng of jobseekers from downtown Montego Bay to the convention centre in Rose Hall.

“We expected a larger crowd, but we are thankful for the numbers that came out. A number of people came out and benefited from it,” MBCCI President Oral Heaven told the Observer.

He theorised that job seekers may have stayed away because of the low wages being offered. Participants at last Friday’s event included hotels along with companies in the fields of business process outsourcing, cleaning, and maintenance.

“They are complaining that based on the salaries that they are getting from some of the hotels, it is going back into lunch money and into bus fare,” Heaven said.

“I wouldn’t mind if the employers look at how they can restructure the salary package to make it attractive so that we can have our people working here instead of wanting to travel overseas on farm work programme,” he added.

Heaven said the job fair continues to be a key event at the MBCCI’s annual expo as it is requested by companies that are short on staff.

“We have gotten a number of calls from employers wanting workers because workers are scarce. So we decided to host this job fair in collaboration with HEART/ NSTA Trust,” he explained.

“We are confident that businesses walked away with some prospective employees,” he added.

Both the hotel representative and the one from the guest services booth agreed.

“For the persons who came, they have potential as it relates to bringing them on for training and putting them into the space,” the hotel employee said.