Brookfield-based QPS Employment Group Inc. will host a walk-in interview day at all 48 of its branches across five states as it works to fill about 12,000 job openings in its footprint.
Of the 12,000 jobs, 4,116 are in Wisconsin and 2,489 are in southeastern Wisconsin. The number of open positions is about 9.5 percent higher than at this point in 2016, and 85 to 90 percent of the jobs are in manufacturing and logistics, said Kelly Ramirez, regional vice president of operations at QPS. Interviews will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday.
“A lot of it is the time is takes to fill a position,” Ramirez said. “The companies that used to go it alone and fill positions on their own are now turning to staffing firms.”
While it regularly conducts walk-in interviews, this is the first time QPS has held a companywide hiring event. It is being held on Oct. 6, Manufacturing Day.
“We’re really trying to get the word out to anybody who maybe doesn’t have experience in manufacturing,” she said. “We’re trying to let people know you don’t need to have experience.”
QPS does not have a set hiring goal related to the effort. Last year, it placed 32,000 employees, and QPS averages 262 new assignments per day companywide. This is the tightest labor market QPS has experienced in its 32 years of existence, Ramirez said.
“We struggle to fill the positions certainly, which is why we’re trying to do different events and educate our clients on what they need to do to attract the best talent in the market, because it falls on them to have living wages and training opportunities and advancement opportunities so that we are able to attract employees to those positions,” she said.
There are 30 QPS locations in Wisconsin, several of which are in the Milwaukee area.
A job fair is also scheduled for tomorrow.
The Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee will host the Westlawn Gardens Job Information Fair tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Salvation Army Distribution Center, 5880 N. 60th St. in Milwaukee.
The event will share information about scheduled construction and redevelopment projects in the Westlawn neighborhood and the work opportunities associated with those. Employment and training organizations will be on hand to discuss both construction and non-construction jobs. More information is available via the job fair website.
