Hundreds of people attended a J.D. Irving job fair in Sussex, N.B. on Thursday.
The company recently announced that it plans to fill 7,900 positions across Canada and in the United States over the next three years, with 89 per cent of those positions in Atlantic Canada.
“I’ve still got Saskatchewan to think about because there are job openings there as well,” says applicant Scot McAleese. “Don’t really want to move, I have a daughter here who’s graduating this year and will be going to university.”
The company said 65 per cent of those jobs are in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia alone, with more than 3,700 hires forecasted for New Brunswick from 2016 to 2018.
“It’s great for us, it will be a win-win for everyone,” says J.D. Irving Human Resources official Louysa Akerley. “Hopefully we’ll get some of our roles filled and we’re hoping to be able to help out some folks.”
J.D. Irving said the highest job opportunities include retail business, manufacturing operations, shipbuilding, supply chain, logistics and engineering.
The job fair comes a little more than a week after the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan shut down its Picadilly mine for an indefinite period, eliminating up to 430 high-paying jobs in the area.
“I hadn’t been to an Irving group job fair, so I wanted the experience of seeing what that was like,” says applicant Charles Creaser, who was recently laid off from the Picadilly mine. “Came here, filled out a form and then got to talk to some interesting people that head up some of the different companies.”
Another job fair was held in Sussex last weekend by a Saskatchewan potash company looking to hire people for their mine near Moose Jaw.
“At my stage in my career,” says Creaser. “I’m not considering relocating; I’d consider southern New Brunswick as my work area.”
J.D. Irving says formal interviews will begin in the following days.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis.
