500-PLUS JOB SEEKERS ATTEND 2026 GREATER RARITAN JOB FAIR

The Greater Raritan Workforce Development Board thanks all the partners and attendees who made the 2026 Greater Raritan Job Fair on May 19 a grand success.

The GRWDB sends a special thank you to the volunteers and committee leads for the event’s host partner, the Hindu Temple and Cultural Society. They made sure everyone felt welcome during the event. In addition, the Somerset County, NJ Public Works teams brought tables to the temple and set up signage the week before, and team members from different divisions of the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development helped promote the event and then supported its smooth running. The event also was supported by the excellent work of Fernandel Almonor, Greater Raritan’s One-Stop Operator, and the small but mighty GRWDB staff, Jeanne Cassano, Chika Okoye and Nekishia Brown.

All this hard work paid off – the GRWDB received very positive feedback from the employers and nonprofit agencies in attendance who shared information and collected resumes from job seeker. In all, more than 500 job seekers walked through the job fair during a very busy three-hour period. While many were from Somerset and Hunterdon counties, there also attendees from Middlesex, Mercer, Warren, Union, Essex and other New Jersey counties as well as from Pennsylvania.

In addition to meeting with employer representatives to share resumes and gather career-related information from a number of state and county agencies, attendees also had the opportunity to attend a workshop offered by Sofia Bandeira, with the Greater Raritan One-Stop Career Training Center. Bandeira presented an overview of available system services.

One of employers at the event was the Superior Court of New Jersey – Vicinage 13. While the process for reviewing applications has started and is ongoing, they agency is already assisting eight attendees with resume review, finding potentially aligned positions and applying, and working with a recent law school graduate to identify a judicial clerkship. This the type of story that demonstrates the value of the workforce development efforts by the GRWDB and its partners.

Attendees also included GRWDB Vice-Chair Claudia Goddiess, who was at the event once again as an employer vendor for APEX Building Services, and GRWDB Chair Nichelle Santos, who came to talk with employers and job seekers.

For more information on other upcoming career-related events, go to the Events – Calendar tab of www.thegrwdb.org where all career-related programs and events are listed.