TOP EMPLOYERS IN HAMILTON COUNTY
Full-time employees only1. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, 4,8992. Hamilton County Department of Education, 4,5083. Erlanger Health System, 4,3844. Tennessee Valley Authority, 3,7865. Amazon, 3,3126. Unum, 2,8007. McKee Foods Corp., 2,7008. CHI Memorial, 2,6029. City of Chattanooga, 2,25010. Volkswagen, 2,177** VW plans to add 1,100 workers by mid-April at its plantSource: Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce Major Employers List -2016
Internet retailer Amazon has hired more than 4,500 full-time workers at its Chattanooga and Charleston, Tenn., distribution centers just five years after starting up in Southeast Tennessee.
In 2011, when the company unveiled plans to build the $139 million centers, it had pledged to hire 1,600 full-time workers.
In Hamilton County, Amazon now has more than 3,312 full-timers at its Enterprise South industrial park site, according to the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.
The company is one of just five businesses or public entities in the county with at least 3,000 full-time employees.
The Amazon employment figures don't count part-time or seasonal workers as it readies to ramp up hiring to prepare for its busy Christmas holiday period.
Jenny Pickard, a spokeswoman for the company, said Amazon's holiday hiring numbers aren't available at this time, but should be in the near future.
Last year, Amazon said it would add 100,000 seasonal positions across its U.S. network during the holidays, including thousands in Tennessee. The national hiring figure was up from 80,000 people the year before.
Amazon started with about 700 full-time workers in Chattanooga and 300 in Charleston when it began operations in 2011. Today, the Charleston center has more than 1,200 full-time workers, according to the Seattle-based retailer.
Throughout Tennessee, Amazon has more than 7,000 full-time employees at six facilities, the company said.
In addition to the fulfillment centers in Chattanooga and Charleston, there are similar facilities in Murfreesboro and Lebanon, a sortation center in Nashville that allows for Sunday delivery, and a Prime Now facility that provides free two-hour delivery on household items.
Amazon reported earlier this year that its employee count jumped worldwide by 49 percent from the same time a year ago to 245,200 workers on staff this spring, thanks to Amazon Web Services' tremendous growth and improvements in the company's e-commerce division.
U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., said he talks with officials at Amazon and Volkswagen, which has an assembly plant at Enterprise South, about the challenge of workforce development as employers express their desire to grow.
"I continue to hear from them that they need skilled, qualified, drug-free workers to fill positions," said Fleischmann.
VW contract staffing company Aerotek is hiring 1,100 new employees by mid-April as the automaker readies to start production of a new midsize sport utility vehicle. That will put VW's full-time headcount at well more than 3,000 workers, figures show.
The job expansions at Volkswagen, Amazon and their suppliers have helped Chattanooga to cut its jobless rate in half over the past seven years from a peak of 10.2 percent in June 2009 to 5.1 percent in August 2016, the most recent month for which employment figures are available.
Randy Boyd, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development commissioner, said in Chattanooga last week that finding a workforce and talent is key for growing businesses.
"We've got Tennessee Promise. That's a head start over most states," he said about the scholarship program that provides two years of tuition-free attendance at a community or technical college.
In addition to hiring thousands of local workers, Amazon has donated more than $95,000 to the Governor's Books from Birth Foundation to increase early childhood literacy across the state, among a variety of other gifts.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.