U of A hosts job fair; businesses excited for customers as student return nears

The fall semester at the University of Arizona will be starting in about a month, and with students heading back to campus soon, the university has started hiring for staff positions and nearby businesses are excited to see more customers.

“I like actually getting to interact and help our customers,” Oscar Montano said. Montano is an employee at Woops! BakeShop on University Boulevard and says the summer is their slower season.

“We use the time to prepare, make sure we have the shop clean,” Montano said. “Take all summer to get the shop in as good of shape as we can.”

Montano says they are expecting things to start picking up within the next week and they are ready.

He said, “We do miss the customers, love the business and that’s what we do, that’s what we’re set up shop for.”

Serving more customers could also mean the need for more employees. “When the year starts we have more need for people of course, because there’s more business so we’re always taking resumes, always open to people with experience too,” Montano said.

The U of A is also actively hiring for staff positions.

Teresa Tidwell, who is a Human Resources Generalist with the university said, “We are really excited, because we are finally able to start recruiting again and get back to hiring people.”

At a job fair on Saturday, July 27 several departments were recruiting for open positions . One of those hiring is the student union. Tidwell says the student union has 80 full-time positions and 400 student worker positions to fill in the next couple months.

“We have not gotten rid of any positions, I’m really excited to be able to say that,” Tidwell said. “We are currently trying to kind of backfill for those shortages that we were unable to fill during the hiring freeze.”

She says facilities maintenance and residential life is also hiring.

“We are continuing to update new job postings everyday, so I’m telling everyone that comes here to keep checking back on our talent website and absolutely there’s going to be plenty more opportunities coming up,” Tidwell said.

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Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist . She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram , Twitter or Facebook .