LAFAYETTE, Georgia – With unemployment at historic lows across Northwest Georgia, Walker County’s biggest employer is in the midst of one of its biggest expansions ever to keep up with demand for its ovens, stoves and other appliances.
GE Appliances’ Roper Corp., which has already boosted staffing, output and distribution facilities with more than $130 million of investments in Northwest Georgia since 2019, plans to hire another 646 workers in the next couple of years to expand its staff to nearly 2,700 workers as part of another $113 million upgrade of the sprawling, 1.2 million-square-foot appliance plant in south Walker County.
Across Northwest Georgia, Roper is adding more than 1,000 jobs with its first Smart Distribution Center in nearby Jackson County and a distribution outlet at the new Appalachian Regional Port in Murray County.
“To see these jobs coming to the United States and Northwest Georgia – it doesn’t get any better than that,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday during a tour of the Roper plant. “We’re doing better than most states with the lowest unemployment rate we’ve ever had in our state and the least number of people on our unemployment rolls in decades.”
Kemp and Roper executives acknowledged that filling all of those jobs could be a challenge with unemployment below 2% across Northwest Georgia, according to the latest figures compiled by the Georgia Department of Labor.