Believe it or not there are employers hiring in Southern Maryland. The TriCounty Council for Southern Maryland (TCCSMD) Workforce Division has a listing of 111 companies that are hiring in the area. Even though many stores are shuttered by order of the governor, others are considered essential and are in the hiring mode. They include “retail and hospitality, healthcare, construction, IT and professional services and of those, the first four are our key focus industries that are thriving and were thriving and growing in Southern Maryland,” said Ruthie Davis, TCCSMD Workforce director.

Those hiring, she said, include supermarkets, Walmart, Costco, Door Dash and Tractor Supply.

In TCCSMD Workforce Division, Davis said, “We have a service delivery arm that we call Southern Maryland Job Source. Job Source is a vehicle to deliver services to residents, job seekers and businesses concerning workforce development. Normally we do this through our American Job Centers. We have four locations throughout Southern Maryland, but we have had to close those to the public for obvious reasons.” They also have a mobile unit that also has been grounded due to the pandemic.

So, like many other services, Job Source is switching to online. Job seekers can go to the TCCSMD website, https://tccsmd.org/, and sign up to receive weekly email listings of local job availabilities. The website also has source material for filing unemployment claims and federal and state programs. Counselors are available on the phone to answer questions.

Some workers are hoping their employers will hire them back with the new federal program that gives eight weeks of loan forgiveness. “I think that a lot of people are in the waiting game right now to see how some of these provisions that the federal government has supplied will affect them,” Davis said.

The Southern Maryland economy was humming along before than coronavirus pulled the plug. Davis said, “I would think a lot of our industries in Southern Maryland are very resilient. Unfortunately, it’s the small businesses that are taking the blunt of this. They’re not in many cases able to stay open or retain their employees. So, I have a question in my own mind about how soon small businesses will be able to bounce back. Hopefully the provisions in the CARES Act are going to be useful and helpful to those small businesses.”