Hundreds vie for 300 part-time DHL jobs at airport

Hebron - A tough job climate with high unemployment in the Tri-State is bringing out large crowds to area job fairs on Tuesday, even if they're only offering part-time jobs.

The first of a three-day job fair for international shipper DHL is being held at an office building on Lindbergh Court in Hebron.

DHL has openings for over 300 package sorters and ground and ramp crew workers. Even though the positions are just part-time at 20 hours a week, the fair is still drawing a crowd of applicants from all over the Tri-State.

By 9:30 a.m., the DHL employment offices were packed with people of all ages applying for the jobs that are from midnight until 4 a.m.

Many applicants had to stand and wait to take job screening tests due to the number of people who showed up.

The part-time jobs only pay about $10 an hour, but even that looks good to many of the applicants.

Some of them are from families, where two or more people have been without jobs for months.

Tressa Yetter of Brookville, Indiana tells 9 News, "And we've got two kids to support at home. I've been out of work since last spring, my husband even longer. We've applied for many jobs but haven't gotten any offers yet. My husband will run out of unemployment on the 11th of May. We need a job, bad."

While many applicants look for a paycheck, others say they're more anxious to get health benefits from DHL.

Dan Hickman is an unemployed machinist from Loveland. "My wife is self employed and she normally depends on me for health insurance. I haven't been able to cover her in the months I've been unemployed. I don't mind working overnights part-time because after several months, DHL offers health benefits."

DHL will continue to take applications for overnight sorters through to 7 p.m. Tuesday and then again Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m.

DHL isn't the only company looking for new workers in Northern Kentucky this week. Convergys is running its own job fair not far away in Erlanger Tuesday afternoon as it looks to fill at least 200 information technology and call center positions.