Creating jobs post-Navistar in Fort Wayne area

FORT WAYNE – Lionel Tobin is a rare find: An employer who’s hiring.

But the president and CEO of Stuart Manufacturing Inc. isn’t having the easy time people might expect, considering the most recent figures showed the Fort Wayne metropolitan area had 10.3 percent unemployment for July.

Tobin estimates only one in nine people passes the Fort Wayne defense industry supplier’s minimum math standards test, which includes basic tasks such as reading a ruler.

His search for a stronger pool of employees sent Tobin to a recent news conference on the city’s efforts to keep Navistar International Corp. employees in Fort Wayne. Many of those workers have the skills he’s looking for. But many would be overqualified for the jobs that are mostly hands-on, including soldering.