After writing about rising unemployment trends and reasons why Tampa Bay is lagging recovery compared to much of the country, it was nice to see so many companies talking about actual AVAILABLE jobs at the job and career fair in St. Pete this morning.

Disney World is beefing up its res center; ValPak and Nielsen adding jobs; Bank of America is expanding its Tampa call center; Massey Pest Services wants to add 11 more locations in the area this fall. And even a construction company (Davaco) was there, trying to fill 100 positions.

No one is saying we don't have a long, long climb ahead or a relapse isn't possible.But this is the first job fair I've been to in the past couple years where every other person I talk to isn't complaining that A) most of the booths are for career training/vocational schools and B) most of the companies are steering people to apply online for future jobs.