[Durham INC] Durham's Northgate Mall New Home to JobLink

[Blalock, Amy]

CITY OF DURHAM

Office of Public Affairs

101 City Hall Plaza

Durham, NC 27701

 

 

News Release

 

For Details, Contact:

Amy Blalock

Sr. Public Affairs Specialist

(919) 560-4123 x 11253

(919) 475-7735 (cell)

Amy.Blalock at DurhamNC.gov

 

 

 

For Immediate Release: April 11, 2011

 

 

 

Durham's Northgate Mall New Home to JobLink Center 

 

DURHAM, N.C. - Durham jobseekers now have another location to search for employment opportunities thanks to the recent opening of a new Durham JobLink Career Center at Northgate Mall.

 

The new Durham JobLink Career Center, located inside Northgate Mall in Suite 848, will operate on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Wednesdays from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

 

According to Nicholas McCoy, senior workforce development manager with the City of Durham's Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the steadily increasing demand of jobseekers searching for employment services in the past couple of years illustrated the need for another permanent location for JobLink. "Between July 2010 and January 2011, more than 7,800 registered job seekers applied for the 1,745 jobs that were posted at JobLink," McCoy said. "Add this with that fact that we had more than 46,000 visits by jobseekers searching for employment and training services during this same time period at all of the JobLink locations combined. The number of clients was incredible and really illustrated for us the need to open up another permanent JobLink location to help handle the needs of unemployed Durham residents."

 

Since July 2009, JobLink has been using Northgate Mall as one of its mobile unit locations to help alleviate the excessive lines at the 1105 S. Briggs Avenue site. According to McCoy, opening a permanent location at Northgate Mall was an easy decision. "The City, in collaboration with our JobLink partners, piloted the use of the Mobile JobLink Unit at Northgate Mall to absorb the extra customer traffic," McCoy said. "The Northgate location surpassed our expectations by providing service to more than 2,100 residents at this location from July 2009 to May 2010. Now, couple this response rate with the measurable increase in the number of new registrants representing zip codes from central and northern Durham County. We feel this was directly related to the centralized location and accessibility of the Mobile Unit at Northgate Mall."  

 

Given the response rate and the impact the Mobile Unit was having at the Northgate Mall location, the Durham Workforce Development Board approved establishing a permanent JobLink location inside Northgate Mall because of its central location, affordable leasing option, the ability of the space to garner a high volume of foot traffic, and other amenities of the mall. Durham JobLink Career Center has a three-year lease for Suite 848 with Northgate Mall Associates LLP for a monthly cost of $1,400. According to McCoy, the success of the Mobile Unit demonstrated that Northgate is one of the few locations in Durham that has the ability to meet all of the above criteria and is an ideal new site for JobLink.

 

The JobLink at Northgate will offer a full array of employment services at this newest location, such as providing job referrals, helping conduct job searches, and submitting online applications. This new center will also provide express referral service Mondays through Wednesdays from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. If applicants are not currently registered with Durham JobLink, they should come prepared to receive service after completing the registration process. The center will also allow businesses to hold recruitment events, interview prospective jobseekers, and receive expedited referrals for posted jobs.  

 

"Ultimately, the new Northgate location is going to provide increased efficiency in accelerated employment services to jobseekers as well as parking availability, public transportation accessibility, and the overall central location of Northgate," McCoy said. "The new Northgate site is going to help us address the tremendous traffic flow at the South Briggs Avenue location, and frankly, it's just smart economic development policy to locate a highly trafficked resource within a locally owned mall that is looking to attract new tenants and more foot traffic."  

 

Besides the Durham JobLink Career Center located at 1105 S. Briggs Ave., residents should also note that Durham JobLink Satellite Sites are still available at the following locations for self-service job search and résumé preparation:

·         W.D. Hill Recreation Center, 1308 Fayetteville St. 

·         Durham County Main Library, 300 N. Roxboro St. 

·         Oxford Manor, 3633 Keystone Place 

·         Durham Technical Community College, 1637 Lawson St. 

·         North Carolina Central University's Career Services, 1801 Fayetteville St. 

·         CAARE, Inc., 214 Broadway St. 

·         Center for Employment Training, 807 E. Main St.

 

For more information about the newest JobLink location at Northgate Mall, visit the City's website at www.DurhamWorkforce.org or contact Tanya Spaulding-Hill, manager of the Durham JobLink Career Center, at (919) 560-6880, ext. 202 or via e-mail at Tanya.Hill at ncesc.gov.  

 

About Durham JobLink Career Center

Durham's JobLink Career Center brings together an array of services geared to help area residents find employment; increase the education and training of the local workforce; and assist area employers in filling job openings. For additional information about the Durham JobLink Career Center, as well as a complete listing of all JobLink Center locations, visit the City's website at www.DurhamWorkforce.org. 

 

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