Job recruitment adopts social distancing as coronavirus alters practices

Jeffrey Cyr wheeled his white Honda sedan into a parking space near a microbrewery and a taco joint at a strip mall here around midday recently. Instead of food, jobs were on the menu.

As more businesses are permitted to resume operations around the U.S., employers are plotting fresh rehiring strategies, such as the curbside job fair in Grand Rapids that attracted Mr. Cyr and his girlfriend, Hannah Vruggink.During the parking-lot screening, the couple and other job seekers sat in their cars and provided recruiters, wearing face masks, with basic information for possible callbacks on a range of jobs in light industry and those requiring skilled labor.

It is an example of how social distancing, needed to stem the coronavirus pandemic, is altering job recruitment.

“Everybody knows how to do the curbside food now, so the idea is to take the concept and apply it to what we do,” said Janis Petrini, owner of the local franchise of the placement agency Express Employment Professionals, which organized the modestly attended job fair.

After she talked with Mr. Cyr, a part-time welder who is 20 years old, and Ms. Vruggink, who is employed at a superstore, Ms. Petrini said Ms. Vruggink, who is also 20, could be a good fit for receptionist work or on an industrial assembly line. “We can find you something better than what you have right now,” said Ms. Petrini. A day later Express lined Mr. Cyr up with a full-time welding position, he said.

Labor Department data don’t yet show much sign of a rebound in job postings, with April’s approximately 5 million listings down from around 6 million in March and lower by 2.2 million than a year earlier. Workers filed 1.5 million new unemployment claims for the week ended June 13, and 20.5 million people were receiving benefits during the prior week, the Labor Department said Thursday.