SOUTH BEND — Hope for thousands of area residents on the hunt for a job came on Wednesday in South Bend.

More than 60 businesses with over 1,600 job openings participated in the 6th Annual Job Fair and Small Business Summit at IU South Bend.

Barbara Edwards is on the hunt. She has her master's degree in business administration, but for months hasn't been able to find work.

“The Internet, the job boards out there, and just trying to go around the city has been quite a challenge,” stated Edwards. “Hopefully, today being face-to-face with some of the employers that decided to participate in this job fair, we'll be able to connect and hopefully find a job opportunity.”

Edwards had plenty of company.

After weeks and months of closings and layoffs across Northern Indiana, it came as a surprise to some that there were plenty of job openings at the fair — from retail to medical and even manufacturing.

"[We have] openings for skilled maintenance people, production supervisors, manufacturing engineers, quality engineers, and welding engineers," said Wayne Petzke of K & M Machine Fabricating in Cassopolis.

But Lawrence Springer had his eye on another type of booth — higher education.

“That's the new high school diploma is an associate's degree in college,” said Springer.

Edwards added the hunt looked hopeful; but with today's economy, she's still keeping her fingers crossed.

“You've got a lot of people out here looking for work right now. So even the higher-up education you have at this point, you're going to be competing against a bunch of other people in the same particular situation that you're in.”