CARTERVILLE - Over the last few years, the economy has gone down, and the attendance at the John A. Logan College job fair has gone up.

Nearly 700 job seekers and 59 employers filled the John A. Logan College gymnasium Wednesday. Director of Placement Lisa Hudgens said in the past few years, attendance for the fair has increased from being in the 500s to exceeding 600. This year, there were 683 job seekers, narrowly edging out last year's count of 675.

Hudgens said there was a pretty even mix of students and community members attending the fair. She said numbers have grown because of recent plant closings and layoffs.

Elizabeth Barbero, human resources manager for Southern Illinois Regional Social Services, said the traffic was consistently high throughout the fair. She said the main difference she noticed this year is at the last fair there was a large number of displaced Maytag workers, while this year's fair had all kinds of job seekers.

"This year it's all over the place," Barbero said.

William Greg came all the way from Mayfield, Ky., to find employment. Greg is a student at Mid-Continent University and looking to get a degree in business management. He said finding employment has been a full-time job in itself because with so many people seeking work, companies have become extremely selective.

"I'm just trying to sell myself," Greg said. "Either you're overqualified or you're not qualified enough."

Kyle Bass, director of ticket operations for the Southern Illinois Miners, said the main issue seekers have had at their booth has been finding full-time work. At the moment, the minor league baseball team only has openings for internships in marketing and stadium operations.

However, he said when filling open positions, they often look at those who have worked with them before as interns. The Miners will also have their own job fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April, 18, at Rent One Ballpark in Marion.

Cindy Morgan of Carbondale has been working two part-time jobs while putting herself through school at John A. Logan College. She said she is looking for work in day care but is having trouble because she doesn't have a car.

Morgan's main goal in attending the job fair was to find a place that offered CPR certification to help her in qualifying for a job in day care.

codell.rodriguez@thesouthern.com / 618-351-5804