Fall 2026 Jacksonville Job Fairs & Hiring Events: Your Complete Guide

Published: September 2, 2026 | By LocalJobPage Team

JACKSONVILLE, FL — On Wednesday, September 30, Florida's minimum wage goes from $14.00 to $15.00 an hour. That is the last of the dollar-a-year steps voters wrote into the state constitution in 2020, and it lands in the middle of Jacksonville's fall hiring season, on exactly the retail, warehouse, facilities and food-service jobs that the next six weeks of hiring events are trying to fill. Publix, Republic Services, Goodwill and a stack of staffing agencies are setting up tables between now and late October. The jobs on those tables are about to be repriced.

Six confirmed hiring events between September 17 and October 22. All of them free. Here they are in order.

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📅 Table of Contents

September 17 — JobNewsJacksonville.com Job Fair, Riverfront
September 17 — Community Job Fair, Normandy Park Baptist
October 1 — Military Sealift Command Recruitment, Southside
October 1 — Community Job Fair, Gardenview Baptist
October 15 — Community Job Fair, Aspire Church San Marco
October 22 — Community Job Fair, Gateway to Heaven

JobNewsJacksonville.com Job Fair — Thursday, September 17

10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. | DoubleTree by Hilton Jacksonville Riverfront, 1201 Riverplace Blvd.

Four hours on the Southbank, free for job seekers, free parking, and open to everyone from recent graduates to people with twenty years in. This is the long-running general-audience fair in this market, and it is the one where you should expect the widest spread of industries in one room. The organizer does not publish the employer list until the Friday before the event, so check the day before if you want to plan your route around the floor. Event details from the organizer. The same organizer has a second Jacksonville date listed for October 28 at the same hotel, but that one is not yet mirrored on the regional workforce calendar, so confirm it before you drive.

Community Job Fair at Normandy Park Baptist — Thursday, September 17

10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Normandy Park Baptist Church, 7050 Normandy Blvd.

Same morning, opposite side of town, and the only event on this list that has published its employer roster in advance: Publix, Republic Services, Century Ambulance, City Wide Facility Solutions, LeafFilter, FastTrack Staffing, AtWork Personnel, Goodwill Industries of North Florida, FDOT Statewide Workforce Development and Jacksonville Fire and Rescue. Better Together runs these, and two things set them apart. They actively recruit second-chance employers, meaning employers who will look at a record. And they recruit employers who can hire people whose English is still coming along. Short-term child care is offered on site, which removes the single most common reason people miss these. Register with Better Together.

Military Sealift Command Recruitment — Thursday, October 1

Two sessions, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | CareerSource Northeast Florida Southside Career Center, 11268 Beach Blvd.

Worth being precise about this one, because the name misleads people: this is a civilian job and it is at a civilian workforce center. No base access, no uniform, no prior service required. Military Sealift Command crews the ships that supply the Navy, and it is recruiting Able Seaman Maintenance, Chief Cook, Cook Baker and Electronics Technician. These are seagoing jobs with federal benefits, and they are one of the few paths in this town where a galley background turns into a career rather than a shift. CareerSource does require an active Employ Florida registration to attend, which is free and takes a few minutes online, so do it the night before rather than in the parking lot. Event page from CareerSource Northeast Florida.

Community Job Fair at Gardenview Baptist — Thursday, October 1

10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Gardenview Baptist Church, 3139 Armsdale Rd.

The North Jacksonville stop on the Better Together fall circuit. Free, open to the public, resume help on site, lunch provided. No employer roster has been published for this date yet, so treat the Normandy Park list from two weeks earlier as a fair guide to the kind of employers who work this circuit rather than a promise. Armsdale Road runs off Main Street north of the airport, and the church does not publish a ZIP code with its listing, so put the street address into your map rather than the postal code.

Community Job Fair at Aspire Church San Marco — Thursday, October 15

11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Aspire Church San Marco, 1936 Hendricks Ave.

San Marco, three hours, free to register, donations optional and not expected. This is the most central location on the list and the easiest one to reach without a car, which matters more than employers usually realize. No roster published yet. Register with Better Together.

Community Job Fair at Gateway to Heaven — Thursday, October 22

10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Gateway to Heaven Church, 7700 N. Pearl St.

The Northside close-out of the fall circuit, and the one that most explicitly recruits second-chance employers and Spanish-speaking employers. If you have a record that keeps getting you screened out of online applications, this is the room where a person reads your situation instead of a filter. Free to register. Register with Better Together.

🎓 Students and Grads

The University of North Florida runs a dense fall fair schedule at the Adam W. Herbert University Center on the Southside campus, including an Accounting and Finance fair on September 16, a STEM and Construction fair on September 29, a Business fair and a School of Communication internship fair on September 30, nursing and behavioral sciences fairs on October 1, and a Physical Therapy fair on November 4. These are for UNF students and alumni only, not the general public. The alumni line is the useful part: if you graduated from UNF and are quietly looking, you still qualify.

🔎 How to Pick the Right Ones

Six events is more than anyone should attend. Sort yourself in ten seconds:

Widest range of industries in one room: September 17 at the DoubleTree.
You want to know who is actually there before you go: September 17 at Normandy Park. It is the only published roster on the list.
You have a record: September 17 at Normandy Park or October 22 at Gateway to Heaven. Both recruit second-chance employers on purpose.
Kitchen, maintenance, electronics or deck experience, and you would go to sea: October 1 at the Southside Career Center. Register with Employ Florida first.
No car, or you are downtown: October 15 in San Marco.
English is your second language: any of the four Better Together fairs. They recruit employers who can hire you.

💵 What Changes on September 30

Right now Florida's minimum wage is $14.00 an hour, and tipped employees get a direct wage of $10.98 plus tips, with a $3.02 tip credit. On Wednesday, September 30, 2026, the standard rate goes to $15.00. The tip credit is fixed by statute, so the tipped direct wage rises by the same dollar, to $11.98.

This is the final scheduled step of Amendment 2, the constitutional change Florida voters approved in November 2020. After this one, the rate no longer jumps a dollar a year. It gets adjusted for inflation instead, which historically means increases measured in cents.

Two things worth knowing. First, Jacksonville cannot set its own minimum wage. Florida law preempts city and county minimum wage ordinances, so Duval, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties are all held to the same state floor, and no local ordinance is coming to change that. Second, the number that applies to you is set by the address where you physically do the work, not where you live and not where your employer is headquartered. That matters for anyone working across the Georgia line, where the floor is a very different story.

Practically: if you take a job this month at $14.00, your employer is required to move you to $15.00 on September 30. If a fair table quotes you $14.50 for an October start, that is below the legal floor on the day you would start. Say so.

What to Bring to Any of Them

Printed resumes, more than you think you need
Photo ID, and your Employ Florida login for the CareerSource event
Licenses and certifications: CDL, TWIC card, food handler, security license, nursing license
Open availability you can state plainly, including whether you can work nights
A short self-introduction you have actually said out loud
A notebook, so you can write down names and follow up within 48 hours

What It Means for Job Seekers

Jacksonville's job market is churning underneath a fairly quiet headline. Unemployment across Northeast Florida was 4.9 percent in July 2026, up from 4.3 percent a year earlier. But the composition is the real story. Over the twelve months through June, education and health services grew 5.3 percent in this metro and professional and business services grew 2.1 percent, while financial activities fell 5.4 percent, information fell 4.2 percent and government fell 3.1 percent. In a city built on financial back-office work, finance is now the worst-performing sector on the board and health care is the best. If you are in a bank operations or insurance processing role and things feel thin, that is not your imagination. There are two solid pieces of good news to work with: Winn-Dixie's parent kept its headquarters here in exchange for adding 200 jobs by 2031 at an average wage above $100,000, and in late August the City Council voted 18-0 to require companies taking city incentive grants to make a good-faith effort to fill at least 10 percent of new positions with veterans and active-duty military spouses.

Start here:

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Jacksonville job fairs free?

Every event on this list is free for job seekers. The CareerSource event requires a free Employ Florida registration, and the Better Together fairs ask you to register in advance, also free.

Which fall job fair has the most employers?

The September 17 JobNewsJacksonville.com fair at the DoubleTree is the largest general-audience event on the list. The September 17 Normandy Park fair is the only one that publishes its employer names ahead of time.

Do I need to register in advance?

For the CareerSource Military Sealift Command event, yes, and you need an active Employ Florida account. For the Better Together fairs, registration is requested and free. The DoubleTree fair takes walk-ins.

When does Florida's minimum wage go to $15?

Wednesday, September 30, 2026. The tipped direct wage goes from $10.98 to $11.98 on the same day, since the $3.02 tip credit is fixed.

Can Jacksonville set a higher minimum wage than the state?

No. Florida law preempts local minimum wage ordinances, so Jacksonville and the surrounding counties are held to the state rate.

Will more events be added?

Yes. CareerSource Northeast Florida and local colleges post events on a few weeks of notice, and Jacksonville's largest public fall career fair has historically landed in mid-November. We update this guide as new dates are confirmed.

Don't Rely on Showing Up

Six events across six weeks is a good start and not a job search. Create a free LocalJobPage account and set alerts so new Jacksonville openings reach you between fairs. Then browse the Jacksonville Career Center for role-by-role guides.

Employers: a table at a fair reaches the people who showed up that day. Post your openings on LocalJobPage and reach Jacksonville job seekers every day of the season.