Officials with the James River Coal Company were “very satisfied” with the successful triple-digit turnout at the Perry County JobSight workforce center’s recent job fair for the company.

About 114 people—including both experienced and inexperienced miners—attended the one-day event vying for underground coal mining jobs at the company’s Leeco and Blue Diamond mines in Perry, Knott, and Leslie counties.

Danny Sorrells, Human Resources director for the mines, said the company plans to select several new employees in the coming months from the pool of applicants who attended the JobSight job fair.

“We’re getting some pretty good miners because of the job fair,” Sorrells said. “We’re still hiring people from that group, so this event is continuing to pay dividends for us.”

At the event, Perry County JobSight Manager Jack Duff and other JobSight staff processed all job applications, pre-screened those applications to determine the best-qualified candidates, and administered tests that reveal applicants' ability to handle complex mechanical mining tasks.

In doing so, JobSight sends James River Coal only the most qualified applicants for job interviews and helps the company determine the areas of operation in which the applicants are best suited to work, Duff said.

“When employers don’t have to invest large amounts time processing hundreds of job applications,” Duff said, “that frees them up to concentrate on the many other important tasks necessary to run a successful business.”

Sorrells agreed, and recommended JobSight to any employer who is in need of a job fair to find qualified new employees.

“Being a part of this job fair didn’t cost me any time at all, and it didn’t cost the company a cent,” Sorrells said. “If a business needs trained, qualified people to come in and handle this kind of work for them, there’s no better deal out there than JobSight.”

For more information about EKCEP's Business Solutions Services, contact Crawford Blakeman at 606-436-5751.

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The Perry County JobSight is part of the JobSight network of workforce centers administered in 23 eastern Kentucky counties by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP). At JobSight's one-stop workforce centers, job seekers and employers can access over a dozen state and federal employment and training programs and employer services in a single location.