Patna, Jan. 12: The state labour department’s move to organise job fairs in the districts is paying rich dividends.

Over 25,000 job aspirants have been recruited at job fairs organised in 17 of the 38 districts till January 11.

A schedule to organise the fairs in the remaining 21 districts has been charted out by the labour department. If the trend in the 17 districts is anything to go by, the number of aspirants recruited from the fairs is likely to cross the 50,000-mark.

The concept of organising such job fairs in the state was first floated in 2008-09. The idea behind organising such fairs was to bring the employers and job seekers under one roof. Emphasis was on giving opportunities to job seekers from the weaker sections of the society, who do not have high educational qualifications or the necessary exposure to reach out to employers.

Initially, the fairs were organised in a centralised manner. While one fair was organised at Patna, the others were held at the divisional headquarters. However, the results were not all that encouraging.

Labour department assistant director S.K. Verma said: “After organising the fairs for two years, we realised we would be able to reach out to more youths in the districts than at the state capital or the divisional headquarters. Many do not have the avenues to come down to attend the fairs.”

Verma has also been made the state-level co-ordinator for organising the job fairs in Bihar.

In 2008-09, at the fair held in Patna, only 1,015 individuals were provided jobs, while the figure at the divisional headquarters was 2,716.

The numbers improved a little the next year (2009-10). The state-level job fair at Patna provided employment to 12,000 youths, while 19,335 youths got jobs from the fairs organised at the divisional headquarters.

Detailing on the profile of the companies turning up at the job fairs organised this year, Verma said a good number of the companies is from the textile sector and are in need of trained personnel.

“A large number of companies, which took part in these job fairs, is also into providing security guards,” he added.

Regarding the salaries provided to the youths who get jobs from these fairs, Verma said most of them get salaries in the range of Rs 5,000— Rs 9,000.

On the department’s future plans, Verma said: “Till now, our focus had been on the lower-rung jobs. But from next year, we would explore options of inviting companies who would recruit youths for the high-rank jobs.”