DURANT — Groups of people crowded around booths at the Bryan County Job Fair Friday at the Kiamichi Technology Center in Durant.

Almost 700 people attended the job fair and almost 30 employers participated, said Roy Davis, the Employment Services office manager at the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission. In contrast, 530 people attended the Bryan County Job Fair last year. Davis credited the increase to Durant’s growth as a community.

Whereas the national unemployment rate was 8.1 percent for the month of February, Durant’s unemployment rate is less than 5 percent. Davis said the job fair was a joint effort between Workforce Oklahoma, Human Services and Team Durant.

“The common goal is to get employers in contact with job seekers,” Davis said. “Durant is one of the fastest growing cities in Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City and Tulsa. As people move in, we want to make sure we give these individuals the right [opportunities]. There’s a broad array of different jobs here.”

Some of those opportunities included customer service jobs with PRC, manufacturing jobs with Spring Air and health care jobs.

Carrie Barron, PRC talent acquisition manager, said PRC is trying to hire 100 people in the next couple of months, and she was impressed with what she’d seen at the Bryan County Job Fair.

“This is the best job fair I’ve been to. Bryan County Job Fair is always the top in the region,” Barron said. “I go to all the surrounding job fairs in the region, and the traffic and job interest here is the best.”

Mona Hankins, a psychology major at Murray State College, had a similar sentiment, saying although she hadn’t seen jobs catered to her particular major, she thought the job fair was a success.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Hankins said. “There are a lot more people here than there were in Tishomingo [at the job fair at Murray State College].”

Amanda Ragan, a nursing major at Murray State College, said she liked the diversity of fields and different available jobs at the job fair.

“I think there are a lot of opportunities here,” Ragan said.

Davis said he encouraged any person in the area looking for work to contact the Workforce Oklahoma office, which is located at 4310 Highway 70 West in Durant or call 924-1828.

“We’re here to help them, work with them,” Davis said. “Basically that’s what we’re here for — a great service to employers and job seekers alike.”