Hundreds of people attended a jobs fair at Caerphilly Leisure Centre on Thursday.
The event, organised by Jobcentre Plus and Caerphilly County Borough, had more than 40 stands ranging from JD Wetherspoon, which is opening the Malcolm Uphill pub in town in October, to Cardiff-based Admiral, Wales’ only FTSE 100 company.
Also exhibiting were various training organisations as well as Ystrad Mynach College, Caerphilly County Borough Council and the Royal Navy.
Argos was looking to fill 30 vacancies for its busy Christmas period.
Louise Beacham, from Argos, said: “We’ve got 30 seasonal jobs available, but there are opportunities to kept on after Christmas. We definitely hopeful we can get most of the people we are looking for today.
“I started as a Christmas temp 15 years ago. Argos is a fantastic company to get a good career. There is a fantastic team in Caerphilly and I was made to feel really welcome. I was lucky enough to be kept on after Christmas and here I am 15 years later and I’m doing the recruitment.”
One hopeful applicant with Argos was Abertridwr resident Donna Smith, 28.
She said: “I was made redundant at the end of last month from an office-based job in Bedwas. I had been with the company for four years. Looking for jobs is awful at the moment.
“This is my first jobs fair. I’ve never been to one before, but everyone is really nice helpful and hopefully something will come of this.
“I’m going to go to every stand.”
David Morgan, Employer Recruitment Advisor with Jobcentre Plus, said: “It went really, really well. We had 638 people through the door with a good constant flow of visitors.
“There was lots of positive feedback from employers and it couldn’t have gone much better.”