Volkswagen officials today said that hiring has passed the 1,000th employee mark.
"The work force provided by Chattanooga and Hamilton County had the right skills," said Hans-Herbert Jagla, executive vice president of human resources for VW's Chattanooga operations.
VW now employs 1,016 people, 324 of them production workers from Hamilton County.
VW said 99 percent of production workers are Hamilton County residents.
Hiring will continue through 2011 as the plant reaches production, VW officials said.
Plans are to hire more than 2,000 employees for the plant that will assembly the automaker's new midsize sedan as VW plans to expand its presence in the American auto market.