In what may be an indicator of the nation’s dire unemployment woes, more than six-dozen people have applied for a city administrator job in the southwest Iowa town of Atlantic. Jack Lipovac, the town’s human resources consultant, says he’s been surprised by the number of people who want the job and from how far away.
“We had 76 applicants,” Lipovac says. “Of those, 70 of them were men, there were six women, and kind of unusual, we had 71 from out-of-state and only five from in Iowa.” Lipovac says the Catch 22 is, because of the unsteady economy, many people are reluctant to move.
He says some applicants are concerned about the prospects of buying a house and for selling a home, as well as finding employment for their spouse. Several of the out-of-state applicants, according to Lipovac, are in transition and are looking for a job. The number of applicants he says, doesn’t necessarily reflect the “quality” of those applicants.
Lipovac suggests a panel be assembled to whittle down the number of applicants to five or six. He wants to start the interviews the week of November 9th and the process will include a tour of the town. Atlantic’s current city administrator, Ron Crisp, is retiring at the end of the year.
Contributed by Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic