LANL Sponsors Recovery Act Job Fair

Nearly 500 seek positions, from laborers to project managers

LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, October 30, 2009—Nearly 500 job seekers turned out for a Los Alamos National Laboratory-sponsored job fair near Española, New Mexico, on Thursday. The job fair was aimed at filling current and future positions with subcontractors working on environmental cleanup under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as well as other Lab work.

Ten of the Lab’s prime subcontractors and the New Mexico Workforce Connection accepted résumés and applications during the event at the Ohkay Conference Center.

“There was a line of 95 people waiting when the doors opened,” said Gordon Dover, the Laboratory’s deputy director for Recovery Act environmental cleanup. “We’ve had great turnout.”

Employers at the fair said they’ll need everything from laborers and heavy equipment operators to safety professionals and project managers. Workforce Connection officials said the event was especially timely because of the closure of a molybdenum mine in Northern New Mexico.

“The Lab has been a really good neighbor to these communities,” said Adrian Ortiz, a program manager for the Northern Area Local Workforce Development Board. “It’s not a closed shop up there [at the Lab] for local businesses.”

The Laboratory received $212 million in Recovery Act funding for environmental cleanup and monitoring in late July. Since then, the Lab has preselected four small businesses for up to $100 million in demolition and decontamination work and created or saved more than 160 jobs.

Recovery Act projects include demolition of 20 unused, Cold War-era buildings and structures. The Lab’s first landfill will be excavated, cleaned to residential standards, and made available for transfer to Los Alamos County.

About Los Alamos National Laboratory (http://www.lanl.gov)

Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and the Washington Division of URS for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.