OGDEN, Utah - When Hostess announced it would be closing earlier this month, 650 workers in Ogden's bakery were without jobs. They got help on their job search with a fair in Ogden on Thursday.
The job fair was a chance for a fresh start after employees who'd been working at Hostess for nearly 25 years and never thought they'd be back out on a job hunt. DWS says the employees had worked an average of 15 years at the Hostess bakery.
Ogden's employees say they received no notification that the company would be going out of business, plus no severance pay and pensions being cut.
Around 200 Hostess employees were at the Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College hoping to find new employment.
Through workshops in the days before the job fair, the Dept. of Workforce Services helped workers update - or create - their resumes before presenting them to the 30 or so employers at Thursday's fair.
"First we were thinking of getting just food companies like U.S. Foods, Kellogg's, but then we said wait a minute we have accountants, book keepers, the truck drivers," said Cory Olson with the DWS.
DWS is confident Ogden can absorb the laid-off workers. They say 30 companies had already expressed interest in many of the employees before Thursday's job fair. Some of the former Hostess workers say they're choosing college or a new life direction over just finding a new job.
In February, the Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College is hosting its own job fair, inviting many of the laid-off Hostess workers.
