Town Meeting: Jobs

Sept. 9, 2005 — -- Tory Johnson, chief executive officer of Women for Hire, a recruitment firm, has counseled hundreds of Hurricane Katrina evacuees at the Houston Astrodome about finding jobs. She participated in "Good Morning America's" Town Hall meeting to answer questions about finding work after the hurricane.

Tyrone Recasner: I worked as a pipe fitter at an oil refinery outside of New Orleans, so I have the skills to get a new job. But where do I start?

Johnson: You should talk to the Texas Workforce Commission to find out what jobs exist. With your skills, there should be opportunities for you there. You just have to find who is hiring.

Darren Smith: I worked as a laborer at the New Orleans Floor and Water Board cleaning around the levees. With these kind of skills, where can I find a job?

Johnson: You have to think beyond the levees. You can go to other industrial cleanup jobs and do the same type of work in a different environment, such as a construction site.

Charlie Gibson: Tory, I know from your time at the Astrodome, you do have stories of people who got jobs. Tell me about that.

Johnson: I would talk to a lot of people who would tell me how helpless they felt. Then I would find out that when they worked in New Orleans, they had jobs with big chains -- which have locations in Texas. One woman had worked in a Taco Bell in New Orleans, and I helped her find a job at a Taco Bell in Houston.