Amazon.com

Internet giant Amazon is hiring 1500 people from Bradley County and Chattanooga Tennessee. The internet retailer settled on the Chattanooga area for two distribution sites and has offered jobs to approximately 1500 locals from Bradley County and Chattanooga. Applicants from several local counties have lined up to apply for the open positions. Construction began in 2010 and Amazon was eager to complete construction to be ready for the holiday season in 2011.

Amazon began a fast track to ramp up the new distribution centers and has received more than 6000 applications to date. Local officials say the hiring effort is the quickest undertaken by a company doing business here. Amazon began taking applications for the bulk of its work force in mid-May.

The new distribution centers in Hamilton and Bradley counties are breathing a new spirit into the area.The centers can help to provide jobs to almost 10 percent of the unemployed workers in those counties. With the economy what it has been nationally, a boost ofapproximately 1500 jobs will give the local economy a shot in the arm. That is a huge relief to the areas local families as well as the economic developmentof the area.

The local Community College is playing a role by being the place for Amazon.com to hold the five week long interview process at Chattanooga State Community College. The college was able to offer additional services such as security and food for which it was compensated by Amazon. Chattanooga State’s plans to offer a complete solution that includes personnel training that will likely begin next year. Chattanooga States’ aim is to offer “a turnkey solution”to businesses.

Amazon is investing about $139 million dollars in both centers and plan to employ 1,600 full time people and as many as 2,000 part timers, which according to Amazon, the first group will begin work this month. This is an incredible boost to the local economy says local leaders. The Bradley County center is scheduled to open immediately and the Chattanooga center soon afterwards.

Amazon has stated that the local support for the project has been very helpful to the company. Amazon has said most of the new hires will start at more than $10 anhour. For permanent employees, Amazon offers variable cash pay for performance and some restricted shares. For Amazon, this means new and excited workers grateful to be employed and for Chattanooga and Bradley County, it means a welcome influx of cash and ancillary revenue.

Jobs Increase Substantially

In times of economic turmoil it is somewhat uncommon to have any sort of good news surface. Fortunately the report on unemployment for March indicates that good things are in fact happening within the economy. More specifically unemployment is declining as more and more jobs are being created by various industries.

According to the U.S. Labor Department approximately 260,000 jobs were added last month alone, which is a significant increase overall. Of course there were hundreds of thousands of jobs eliminated last month as well but in the end the number of new jobs was greater than the number of jobs lost.

Not only was March a very successful month for employers, February was just as good. Two months in a row with substantial job increases has not happened since 2006 and many experts say it could be a sign that the economy is finally beginning to recover.

The U.S. Labor Department and other analysts also agree that the consistent increase in jobs will likely continue for the rest of 2011. What this means is that by the end of the year unemployment will likely decrease by another percentage or two. Currently unemployment is at a 2 year low of 8.8% and by the end of the year it is expected to be even lower. In the coming weeks more announcements about the economic situation are anticipated and overall analysts and economists say they should all carry plenty of good news about the current state of the U.S. economic situation along with the worldwide economic situation.