When doors were opened on Monday, Sean McMillan, a director with workforce training agency Georgia Quick Start, found some 400 applicants standing in line for the $10 an hour job the company is offering. By the time the selection was over on Wednesday, more than 3,000 people had applied to work for Sewon.
"Many of these people, particularly locally, have watched Kia's facility being built, and with that there's been a lot of anticipation. As times have become tougher, I think the hope -- and that's a word you don't hear a lot lately -- has grown," McMillan was quoted as saying by Autonews. LaGrange Dayle News wrote “American Idol' auditions might be easier than landing a position at the new Sewon America plant."
Hiring conditions aren't tough, but the company expects future employees to have an highschool degree and if possible, some manufacturing experience. Neither of these conditions are hard to meet, as recent cuts were announced this week by Nissan, General Motors and BorgWarner.
Out of the more than 3,000 people who hope for a job, only 300 will be hired this year and out of those only 100 will be starting pre employment training next week. McMillan expects Sewon to offer jobs to 25 or 30 people of those, while the rest will be put on hold until the next hiring wave later in the year.
Sewon America will manufacture stamped chassis and body parts for Kia's new factory, due to open in November in West Point. As we already reported, Kia is doing unexpectedly well in the US, considering what the other manufacturers are going through. Kia announced at the beginning of the month that its January sales have increased by 3.5 percent.
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