Fall 2026 Kern County Job Fairs and Hiring Events: Your Complete Guide

Published: September 14, 2026 | By LocalJobPage Team

BAKERSFIELD, CA — Kern County is bigger than some states, and its hiring calendar acts like it. Over the next six weeks the county's job fairs are not all downtown. They run from Truxtun Avenue out to a hangar town on Highway 58, up the Indian Wells Valley, and back around to a community college on the west side oil patch. If you only watch Bakersfield city limits, you will miss four of them.

Six confirmed Kern County hiring events run between Tuesday, September 15 and Wednesday, October 28, in Bakersfield, Mojave, Ridgecrest and Taft. Here is every date, every address, and the eligibility catch on each one.

In a hurry? Skip straight to the Kern County job links and start searching now →

📅 Table of Contents

September 15 — Kern County Healthcare Job Fair, Bakersfield
September 17 — Mojave Job Fest
September 28 — Displaced Oil and Gas Worker Fund Session, Bakersfield
October 1 — Ridgecrest Job Fest
October 8 — CSUB Fall Career Expo, Bakersfield
October 28 — Taft Job Fest

Kern County Healthcare Job Fair — Tuesday, September 15

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center, 801 Truxtun Avenue, Bakersfield

Employers' Training Resource puts Kern County health care employers under one roof downtown, and the line that matters is "all experience levels welcome." Health systems hire far more than nurses: food service, housekeeping, patient transport, scheduling, registration and billing all live inside a hospital's payroll, and in California those roles at a covered facility fall under the health care wage schedule rather than the $16.90 statewide minimum. ETR has not published an employer roster or an admission price, so call Kari McLeod at (661) 747-7937 before you drive down. Parking on that block fills fast when the convention center has anything else running. → See full details, wage tiers and a prep checklist

Mojave Job Fest — Thursday, September 17

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Stuart O. Witt Event Center, 1247 Poole Street, Mojave

Job Fest is Kern County's traveling job fair series, sponsored by the county Department of Human Services and running since 2012. The whole point of it is that it does not stay in Bakersfield. The Mojave stop puts employers inside the event center named for the Mojave Air and Space Port's longtime general manager, in a town whose economy runs on aerospace, flight test, wind and solar maintenance, rail and the Highway 58 freight corridor. If you live in Rosamond, California City, Tehachapi or Boron, this is your closest fair of the fall by a wide margin. The event page lists no admission cost and no registration link, so treat it as a walk-in and email jobfest@jobfestkern.com if you need to confirm.

Displaced Oil and Gas Worker Fund Information Session — Monday, September 28

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM | America's Job Center, 1600 East Belle Terrace, Bakersfield

Be clear on what this is: an information session, not a job fair. No employers, no interviews. What it explains is a state fund that pays for retraining if you have been laid off from oil and gas, or are at risk of it, and Kern County's workforce board administers the largest share of it in California. The session is free, materials come in English and Spanish, and an RSVP is required at (661) 742-2217. If your rig is stacked or your crew got cut back, two hours here is worth more than a morning of handshakes. → See what the fund pays for and who qualifies

Ridgecrest Job Fest — Thursday, October 1

10:00 AM – 1:00 PM | Kerr McGee Community Center, 100 W. California Avenue, Ridgecrest

The second Job Fest stop of the fall, and the one that saves the longest drive for the people who need it most. Ridgecrest sits about two and a half hours northeast of Bakersfield in the Indian Wells Valley, close enough to Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake that defense contracting, base support, logistics and public sector work drive the local labor market. Nobody in Bakersfield should drive up for this one. If you live in Ridgecrest, Inyokern or Trona, it is the only fair on this list within reach, and the ETR affiliate office at 540 Perdew Avenue, Suite B-2, (760) 384-5995, is the local number to call with questions.

CSUB Fall Career Expo — Thursday, October 8

11:00 AM – 3:00 PM | Student Recreation Center gym, CSUB campus off Stockdale Highway, Bakersfield

The biggest employer turnout of the fall in Bakersfield proper, and the one most readers of this page cannot attend. The Center for Career Education and Community Engagement restricts the Fall Career Expo to CSUB students and alumni, across a range of industries and including internships. If you graduated from CSUB at any point, that alumni door is open to you, and four hours is a long window. If you did not, skip it. Questions go to the CECE office at (661) 654-3033. Worth knowing separately: CSUB is running a JCPenney Suit-Up discount event on career clothing at Valley Plaza, 2501 Ming Avenue, on Friday, October 2, from 4:00 to 7:00 PM, open to the CSUB community and guests.

Taft Job Fest — Wednesday, October 28

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Taft College, 29 Cougar Court, Taft

The last Job Fest stop of the fall lands on the west side, and the timing is not accidental. Taft, Maricopa and Fellows have absorbed more of the oil sector's contraction than anywhere else in the county, and a county-sponsored fair on the Taft College campus is aimed squarely at people who need a second trade rather than a second rig. Expect the same walk-in format as Mojave and Ridgecrest. Cougar Court is off Emmons Park Drive on the north end of town, and the drive from southwest Bakersfield down Highway 119 runs about forty minutes.

🔎 How to Pick the Right Ones

Clinical, licensed or hospital support staff: September 15 downtown, and nothing else on this list comes close for health care.
Oilfield workers, current or recently cut: September 28 for the retraining money, then October 28 in Taft for employers. Do both, in that order.
East Kern residents — Mojave, California City, Rosamond, Boron, Tehachapi: September 17 at the Stuart O. Witt Event Center. It is the only one within an easy drive.
Indian Wells Valley residents — Ridgecrest, Inyokern, Trona: October 1 at the Kerr McGee Community Center.
CSUB students and alumni: October 8 on campus. Free, and the employer count is the highest of the fall.
West side — Taft, Maricopa, Fellows, Derby Acres: October 28 at Taft College.
No fair near you before November? ETR runs a free Job Hub every Tuesday at 9:00 AM and a Veterans Job Club at 2:00 PM the same day, both at 1600 East Belle Terrace, (661) 325-4473.

⚠️ Read This Before You Drive

Three honest caveats, because a wasted tank of gas in Kern County is not a small thing.

The CSUB expo is not open to the public. Students and alumni only. If you have no CSUB affiliation, the October 8 date is not for you.
September 28 is a benefits briefing, not a hiring event. Nobody there is interviewing. It is an application and a case manager, which is worth a morning, but it is not the same thing.
No employer rosters have been published for any of these. Job Fest and ETR both describe the employers in general terms and neither has posted an attendee list, so nobody can promise you your target company will be in the room. Call first if a specific employer is the whole reason you are going.

📋 What to Bring to Any of Them

Ten printed resumes, one page each, with a phone number that works.
Photo ID and your Social Security card. Some employers start paperwork on the spot.
Copies of every license and card you hold: CDL, H2S, crane, welding tickets, forklift, BLS, CNA, food handler.
Business casual. Not a company t-shirt, not scrubs.
Arrive in the first hour. Recruiters are fresher and the lines are shorter.
Two sentences on what you want next, ready to say out loud. "Whatever you have" ends conversations.

🔎 Where to Aim This Fall

Walk in already knowing what is posted. A candidate who names a specific opening stops being a stack of paper and starts being a hire. These searches cover the sectors actually moving in Kern County right now, from the Shafter and Highway 99 freight corridor to the solar fields out past Mojave.

Start here:

Frequently Asked Questions

What job fairs are happening in Kern County this fall?

Six confirmed events between September 15 and October 28: the Healthcare Job Fair in Bakersfield on September 15, Mojave Job Fest on September 17, the Displaced Oil and Gas Worker Fund session in Bakersfield on September 28, Ridgecrest Job Fest on October 1, the CSUB Fall Career Expo on October 8, and Taft Job Fest on October 28.

Are these job fairs free?

The September 28 information session is confirmed free by Employers' Training Resource. The Job Fest events and the healthcare fair have no admission price posted either way, so we are not going to tell you they are free. Email jobfest@jobfestkern.com or call ETR at (661) 325-4473 to confirm before you go.

Do I need to register in advance?

Only for September 28, which requires an RSVP at (661) 742-2217. The others have no registration link posted and are run as walk-in events, but confirming by phone costs you nothing.

What is Job Fest?

Job Fest is a Kern County Department of Human Services sponsored job fair series that has been running since 2012, deliberately moving around the county instead of staying in Bakersfield. The March 2026 edition at the Dignity Health Convention Center downtown drew more than 100 employers, according to local reporting. Turnout at the smaller community stops is considerably lower, and that is the trade for not driving an hour.

Can anyone attend the CSUB Fall Career Expo?

No. CSUB's career center limits it to CSUB students and alumni. If you hold a CSUB degree you are eligible, no matter how long ago you graduated.

Which employers will be at these events?

No roster has been published for any of them. Job Fest and ETR both describe participating employers in general terms. Treat any list you see elsewhere as unverified until the organizer posts it.

Will this guide be updated?

Yes. Kern County adds fairs to these calendars month by month, and October and November are still filling in. We update this page when a new event is confirmed or an existing one moves, so check back before you make a long drive.

Six Dates. Pick Two and Prepare.

Nobody gets hired at all six of these, and the people who show up to one with ten resumes and a clear answer do better than the people who collect pens at four. Create your free LocalJobPage profile and turn on alerts for Kern County openings, or browse every job posted in Bakersfield right now.

Employers: hiring in Kern County this fall, whether in Bakersfield, Delano, Shafter or out east toward Mojave? Post your openings on LocalJobPage Bakersfield and reach candidates who are already searching before they walk into someone else's booth.