Job fair for transgender people organized by MetroHealth

• The non-profit organization MetroHealth held a job fair to provide opportunities for Americans who identify as transgender or non-binary.
• A study by the Human Rights Campaign revealed that transgender people were twice as likely to be unemployed compared to the general population.
• 44 percent said they were underemployed and four times as likely to report a household income of less than $10,000 annually.

A study by the Human Rights Campaign, A Broken Bargain for Transgender Workers, painted a grim picture of the plight of transgender job-hunters in the United States.

“Despite the progress made at the local, state, and federal levels, transgender Americans face workplace discrimination at alarming rates,” the study revealed.

The study also revealed that trans workers suffer unemployment twice as high as the general population. Furthermore, 44 percent said they were underemployed and they were four times as likely to report a household income of less than $10,000 annually.

Job fair for transgender people

“Unfair laws and policies impose real, everyday burdens on transgender workers across the country,”  Ineke Mushovic, Executive Director of the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) was quoted by the HRC. “It’s shocking that in this day and age, federal non-discrimination law still does not explicitly protect a high-performing worker from being fired just because he or she is transgender.”

Thus, according to a transgender news stories reported by the website Cleve Scene on April 25, the non-profit organization MetroHealth planned to provide opportunities for Americans who identify as transgender or non-binary through a job fair.

Already running four years in a row, MetroHealth’s job fair this year would feature a presentation from the event’s keynote speaker Nickie Antonio, a representative from Ohio House District 13.

It would also include workshops and resources for various job-hunting needs such as career development, job placement, and social and professional networking.

Free service

Conducted for the whole day on May 12 at MetroHealth’s main campus in Cleveland, Ohio, it would offer free services such as resume clinic and career fair readiness program.

Participants could use expert advice on improving their resume and receive recommendations from recruiters and talent acquisition professionals regarding qualities that make up an ideal candidate.

Employers who were scheduled to join the event were Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Metroparks, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Giant Eagle, Hyland, Keller Williams, KeyBank, MetroHealth, PNC Bank and Starbuck’s.

Across the country and around the world, similar efforts to provide employment opportunities for transgender and non-binary individuals have been organized by activists and advocacy groups.

For instance, Karl Andrus of Ontario, Canada organized the Open Doors Job Fair last February with the goal of helping transgender job-hunters manage fears and anxiety of being misjudged when going through job interviews and recruitment processes.

In September last year, founder of TransCanWork organization, Michaela Mendelsohn, had made headway in encouraging business establishments in California to become transgender-friendly workplaces.

Via