Elevate East Valley: Six Cities, One Hiring Event at the Mesa Convention Center September 29

Published: August 31, 2026 | By LocalJobPage Team

MESA, AZ — For years, hunting for work in the East Valley meant tracking six separate city calendars and hoping the good event was not the one you missed. On Tuesday, September 29, that changes. Mesa is hosting Elevate East Valley, a free hiring event that pools employers from Apache Junction, Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Queen Creek and Tempe, along with ARIZONA@WORK Maricopa County, into one room at the Mesa Convention Center.

One room, six cities, three hours, no cover charge.

In a hurry? Skip straight to the job links and begin searching now →

📍 Event at a Glance

Event	Elevate East Valley Workforce Hiring Event
Date	Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Time	10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Arizona time
Location	Building C, Mesa Convention Center, 201 N. Center St., Mesa, AZ 85201
Cost	Free, for job seekers and for businesses
Registration	None announced for job seekers, walk in
Who it is for	Job seekers of all experience levels, and businesses wanting a table
Partner cities	Apache Junction, Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Queen Creek, Tempe, plus ARIZONA@WORK Maricopa County
Employer tables	Harvey Smith, HSDBusinessServices@maricopa.gov
Questions	educationinfo@mesaaz.gov

🏆 What Makes This One Different

Most job fairs in the Valley are single-city affairs, and a single city's business roster only goes so deep. The Queen Creek Chamber describes this as the inaugural run of a six-city partnership, which is a meaningfully bigger pool than a Mesa-only event would produce. If you live in Gilbert but would happily commute to a Tempe employer, or you are in Apache Junction and open to anything along the US-60, this is the first event on the local calendar built for exactly that.

It is free for job seekers and free for businesses that want a table. The city is not requiring job seekers to register, so this is a walk-in event. Doors are at 10 a.m. in Building C of the convention center, right in downtown Mesa a short walk from Main Street and the light rail. Full details are on the City of Mesa event calendar.

🔥 Who Should Show Up

The organizers have billed it as a broad, all-industries event and have not published a company-by-company roster, which is normal for a regional event this far out. Given who has been hiring across the East Valley this year, expect the floor to lean toward manufacturing and industrial roles, healthcare, logistics, retail and hospitality, city and county government, and construction trades.

That is not a guess pulled from nowhere. The East Valley has spent the past eighteen months absorbing a wave of industrial investment: Hadrian's $200 million Mesa factory, XNRGY's plant, a semiconductor equipment facility, data center construction. Those projects hire in waves, and a regional event in late September is exactly where the second and third waves get staffed.

⚠️ The Honest Picture of the Mesa Job Market

Mesa is not a one-direction story right now, and you should walk in knowing that. The investment wave is real, but so is the pullback in parts of the chip sector. Infineon filed a WARN notice in early August covering roughly 98 positions at its Mesa facility as it shifts some production to foundry partners. So the same city has new plants staffing up and an experienced technical workforce coming loose at the same time.

For a job seeker, that cuts two ways. There is more competition for the good industrial roles from people with directly relevant fab experience. There is also a genuine appetite among the newer manufacturers for exactly that skill set, and a regional hiring event is a faster route to those recruiters than an online application queue.

💵 What It Pays

Arizona's minimum wage is $15.15 an hour in 2026, with a tipped rate of $12.15. Unlike Flagstaff and Tucson, which have their own local ordinances, Mesa has no city rate of its own — the state figure applies across the whole East Valley, so Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe and Queen Creek all sit on the same floor. That makes this one of the rare metros where the address on the offer letter does not change your wage floor.

Practically nothing at an event like this starts at the floor anyway. Warehouse and logistics roles around the East Valley typically post in the $15 to $19 range, with industrial and plant technician work reaching into the low-to-mid $20s. Healthcare support roles such as CNA and medical assistant generally run $17 to $27. Aerospace assembly work at the Boeing tier sits higher still, roughly $20 to $34 depending on experience.

💼 What It Means for Job Seekers

If you are working the East Valley market this fall, this is the one event to build your week around. Roles most likely to be in the room:

Manufacturing and production technicians
Warehouse, logistics and material handling
CNAs, medical assistants and patient support
City and county roles, including public works and parks
Customer service and call center
Retail and food service supervisors
Skilled trades and construction

Bring more printed resumes than you think you need, a photo ID, and any certification or license number you already hold. Write down the name of every recruiter you talk to and follow up inside 48 hours, because that follow-up is where most of the actual hiring happens.

🔎 Start Searching Now

Do not wait until the 29th to start. Openings across Mesa and the East Valley are posted daily:

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Elevate East Valley hiring event free?

Yes, for job seekers and for businesses that want a table. There is no admission charge and no ticket.

Do I need to register to attend?

No registration has been announced for job seekers, so plan on walking in. Businesses that want a table should contact Harvey Smith at HSDBusinessServices@maricopa.gov. General questions go to educationinfo@mesaaz.gov.

Where exactly is it?

Building C of the Mesa Convention Center, 201 N. Center St. in downtown Mesa. It is a separate building from the main hall, so give yourself a few extra minutes to find it.

Do I have to live in Mesa to attend?

No. The whole point of the event is that six East Valley cities are participating. Residents of Apache Junction, Chandler, Gilbert, Queen Creek and Tempe are just as much the audience as Mesa residents.

Which employers will be there?

No company-by-company roster has been published. The event is billed as covering a variety of industries across the six partner cities. Check the City of Mesa calendar page closer to the date.

What else is coming up this fall?

ASU holds its Polytechnic Career and Opportunity Fair on November 3 at the Polytechnic campus on E. Williams Field Road, though that one is aimed at ASU students and alumni. ARIZONA@WORK typically posts single-employer hiring events only a few weeks ahead, so more East Valley dates will surface in late September and October.

Three Hours Is Not Long

Decide before you go which four or five employers you actually want to talk to, and treat the rest as a bonus. Create a free LocalJobPage account so new East Valley openings reach you between events, and browse the Career Center for role-by-role guidance.

Employers: a table on September 29 reaches the people who walked in that morning. Post your openings on LocalJobPage and reach Mesa job seekers every day of the fall.