Goodwill looking to hire

Applicants including Katrina Hunley of Rochelle fill out paperwork during Thursday’s job fair at the new Goodwill store location in DeKalb. (Rob Winner – rwinner@daily-chronicle.com)

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DeKALB – People hoping to work at a new Goodwill store scheduled to open next month visited the still-empty storefront Thursday to fill out applications at the store’s six-hour job fair.

Goodwill of Northern Illinois plans to open the resale shop near Schnucks in the Glidden Crossing shopping center on South Annie Glidden Road in DeKalb Sept. 10, spokeswoman Shannon Halverson said. The store plans to hire between 30 and 40 full- and part-time employees to work in the store and donation center. The positions all pay between $8 and $10.50 an hour, Halverson said, and include sales associates, workers to process donations and an assistant store manager.

Job seekers filled out applications at long folding tables in the cavernous space that will soon be filled with sales displays. Some were hoping for full-time jobs, while others were looking for part-time work to make ends meet.

Beth Taylor moved to DeKalb last spring from Michigan, and has been disappointed to find the job market here not much better than where she left.

“Ive been going around putting in applications for a few months now,” she said. “I’m looking for pretty much anything full-time.”

Stay-at-home mom Cathy Olsen, on the other hand, was hoping for a part-time position. Her DeKalb family is doing all right financially, she said, but some of her husband’s co-workers have had their hours cut, and she wants to add to the family’s financial cushion.

“We’re doing OK. There are a lot of people in there with no jobs,” she said, gesturing toward the job fair. “I figure with the kids going back to school, I could pick up some part-time work and help out a little bit.”

Goodwill of Northern Illinois currently operates stores in Freeport, Rockford and Sterling in Illinois and in Beloit, Wis. The nonprofit agency provides education, training and career services to people with disabilities and those with disadvantages like homelessness or lack of job skills.