Tynisha Jones, left, and her sister Lakita Jones talk to Walgreens East Ridge store manager Mike Tallman at a Job Fair at Chattanooga State on Thursday. The sisters are both sophomores at Chattanooga State.Tim Jennings has a problem few employers have had since the recession hit — he has more jobs than he can fill.
Metro Boiler Tube Co. had to slash its workforce by about 40 percent a few years back. Now the company is in full-on growth mode, and Jennings can’t find enough welders to fill the Ringgold plant’s three shifts.
“It’s a dying breed. There’s a lot of people getting ready to retire and there’s not enough people coming up,” the company’s human resources director said. “It’s dirty and hot, but it’s steady and it pays well.”
Metropolitan Chattanooga added 3,990 jobs in the past year from January 2011 to January 2012, according to state employment numbers released Thursday. The metro area jobless rate fell from 9.1 percent a year ago to 7.8 percent in January 2012.
Jennings was one of 79 area employers searching for workers at Chattanooga State Community College’s jobs fair Thursday, a far better showing than the 60 at last year’s job fair.