Over three years since COVID shut down the economy, Kitsap County is still searching for ways to fill the many vacancies in its job market.

The need for employees was evident at the April 11 Kitsap County Job Fair, as applicants were met with a plethora of full-time, part-time and seasonal careers to choose from. Employees from parks, public works, the sheriff’s office and more spoke with those seeking employment, providing guidance and encouraging those attending to apply.

“It’s just a great opportunity for this type of thing because it helps with the community,” said Jonathan Rider, an attendee of the job fair looking to break out of a monthlong stint without a job. “I have a family friend here who works for the parks department in this field, and he was like, ‘If you ever want a job, come to this fair.’”

Human resources program supervisor Carol Mackie said outreach is important for events such as the job fair, but numbers are still far from pre-pandemic levels. She explained that some jobs that would usually get up to 500 applicants in two weeks are now lucky to get 60.

Mackie said the number of open positions could be trending upward again. “We have a record number of employees that are retiring because they weren’t sure they wanted to retire during COVID,” she said. “So we have this huge number of people that are leaving the workforce, and we just don’t seem to have enough people entering.”

This comes as the county’s unemployment rate has been slowly growing, hitting just under 6% in February compared with 3.8% in September. Additionally, attempts to appeal to younger generations to work are also proving difficult, as Mackie said Kitsap’s school districts were not able to provide transportation for some students to the fair, citing bus driver shortages.

James Williams, a 17-year-old student at Barker Creek Community School, claimed that school didn’t even point him in the right direction. “I found this out by myself. None of the schools told me,” he said.

It’s something Mackie said the county will work to correct in the future as one of the main goals of these fairs is to make county careers appealing to Kitsap youth. “We want to do that outreach because it’s really important that they understand that government is a resource for your career,” she said. “Just the multitude of different types of positions and diverse types of jobs that we have, people just don’t understand it.”

Human resources manager Natalie Marshall pointed out a number of ways each department is working to appeal to those seeking jobs. The sheriff’s office let people try on drunk goggles while trying to walk in a straight line. Other booths sported video and picture presentations, and the novelty giveaways of fidget spinners and pens were countless.

Marshall said each program tries to find “anything that draws people’s attention, but is also kind of related to you. Whether it’s your field, the jobs that you have offered, anything like that, it makes it really engaging or applicable.”