Charles Walker, a 46-year-old displaced factory worker, sees the construction around Volkswagen and other new businesses in the region and is hopeful about his job prospects.
But after filling out applications along with thousands of others for the new jobs in Chattanooga, Mr. Walker concedes that finding work “is very hard right now.”
“There are a lot of people applying for every job and when you call back about your application, all they say is, ‘We’ll get back to you later.’ But so far, they never have.”
More than 65,000 people applied this fall for one of the nearly 2,000 jobs that Volkswagen of America plans to add next year at its $1 billion Chattanooga assembly plant. VW officials said they are pleased with the response and expect to begin hiring this winter to prepare for the start of vehicle production in 2011.
Volkswagen may do the most hiring in the new year, but Chattanooga’s other major employers also report more people are looking for work as hiring has slowed in the recession.
During 2009, eight major employers in Chattanooga reported receiving nearly 190,000 job applications. That’s nearly 36,000 more applications than the total number of employed persons in all of Hamilton County.
Chattanooga is where most workers living in the 6-county metropolitan area are employed and the opening of the new Volkswagen plant and replacement hiring by other major employers has attracted thousands of resumes from job seekers across the country, employers said.
With unemployment above 10 percent in both Tennessee and Georgia, labor experts say the number of job seekers will continue to far outpace job openings. Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said more than six people now apply for every job opening in Georgia.
“Hopefully, we’re on the back side of this recession and the worst is over,” Mr. Thurmond said. “But economists predict we’ll be in a period of slow economic and job growth for the next 12 or even 18 months.”
In Tennessee, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development said it served 567,000 people in the year that ended Oct. 1. That was nearly 12 times as many people as the 47,297 job openings it listed during the same period.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, which serves Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and four other states, now has more than 150,000 job applications on file. Chattanooga-based BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has more than 60,000 applications filed.
“The labor market is very different from what it was a year ago and the number of applicants we have for every job we post is actually mind-boggling,” said Ron Harr, vice president in charge of human resources for BlueCross, Tennessee’s largest health insurer. “Our turnover is down just because of the economy and people wanting to stay put and hang on to what they have.”
BlueCross’ cross-town rival, Cigna Healthcare, is seeing a similar influx of applications.
“In the Chattanooga market, we received about 150 applications for each open job (in 2009) and we filled 135 positions throughout the year,” Cigna spokeswoman Gloria Barone said. She said there were about 100 applications per job in 2008.
At Unum Corp., the number of job applicants nationwide jumped from 26,000 in 2007 to 50,000 in 2008 and is expected to go even higher for 2009.
“I definitely think it’s a reflection of economics,” Unum spokeswoman M.C. Guenther said.
She said the company headquarters in Chattanooga got 18,000 applications in 2008.
At Erlanger hospital, spokeswoman Katie Nave said applications also have increased despite a drop in employee turnover.
“When a support job opening is posted, our HR department is now inundated with applicants,” she said.