CareerSource SWFL reopens its doors, continues virtual services

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Credit: WINK News.

From virtual to in-person help, CareerSource Southwest Florida is now open to help people back at its office space. But there are some strict social distancing rules in place.

We learned about the guidelines that will be enforced, as CareerSource begins to offer its services at its brick-and-motor office Monday.

After more than two months of only assisting job seekers virtually, the doors to CareerSource are back open. But the coronavirus pandemic has changed its mode of operations, including the way it helps its clients.

Billy Ziegelman has been out of work for a month now.

“It’s been hard, but I’ve been up from early in the morning to late at night putting in resumes on the computer,” Ziegelman said. “And I’m just not giving up. I just keep trying and trying and trying from 7:30 in the morning to 5 or 6 o’clock at night.”

Ziegelman made an appointment as soon as he could, anticipating many others will do the same.

“There’s a lot of people out of work,” Ziegelman said.

In April, Florida’s unemployment rate skyrocketed to nearly 13%. In Lee County it went up to 14.6%.

CareerSource says, for weeks, it helped about 6,000 people reset their pins so they could file for unemployment.

Now, Janeth Castrejon, who is the communications manager with CareerSource SWFL, says they’re starting to see a shift in the need.

“Now, we’re seeing kind of a little bit of a decline of that need of resetting pins,” Castrejon said. “So, within the last week or so, we have been getting a lot more requests for job search. People really need our help to get them out there to help them build a job, to help them build a resume and use all the services that we actually provide.”

Castrejon told us about 60 people have made appointments since CareerSource announced its reopening.

Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments are preferred to keep up with social distancing guidelines.

CareerSource is also working to put together a virtual job fair to launch in July.


REMINDER

  1. CareerSource isn’t the unemployment office.
  2. If you have a mask, they ask that you bring and wear it while there.
  3. They prefer that you make an appointment. See different way to make an appointment clicking  here.

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