Despite soaring inflation rates and layoffs at some major American companies, the recently released U.S. Jobs Report shows strong job growth over the last month with half a million jobs added.

Lisa Miller, the Executive Director of Northwest Pennsylvania Job Connect  said this new report is very good news, "We are getting closer now, if not at the point we were prior to the pandemic."


After two years of economic uncertainty, the latest jobs report shows promise for our region. "There's a lot of growth in the region in a number of industries, most recently in health care and education, but we also see hospitality growing as well as business and professional services continue to grow in the region", said Miller.


Pennsylvania Career Link helps helps connect employees with people looking for jobs, even helping one woman find a new job at Career Link.


Taylor Aiken is the Talent Development Specialist at Career Link and explained how she got her current job at Career Link after benefiting from some of their programs. "After heard about the program, Career Link contacted me and they said 'we are hiring you have a bachelors degree', so that's what happened I l landed a job here and I've been here for almost over a year", explained Aiken.


When it comes to filling those jobs, Pennsylvania Career link, works both with people looking for jobs and with employers looking to fill jobs too.


Among the companies creating jobs is Kirk Precision Machining in Lake City.
Pam Bortner-Adsit, the Plant Manager explained some of the struggles they've enduring finding people to work, "There's definitely a need and we cannot find or attract people in. We've offered training in house and we've offered training outside, we went through many agencies to find people to come in and work."

It's been a problem for months, one they hope to solved before the next jobs report at the end of this month. "It's very hard to meet any customer requirements and we just struggle day to day getting parts out the door for our customers", said Bortner-Adsit.


Some of the positions that Kirk Precision Machining are looking to fill include multiple spindle operators and C and C operators.

To look at some of the open positions through Career Link, click here.