By Brett Wallace, Chronicle-Tribune
bwallace@chronicle-tribune.com
The United States today is marking its first Labor Day since the economic downturn began causing widespread layoffs last fall.
While many communities - including Grant County - continue to work to create new jobs, this area has had the benefit of three of its top employers adding to its workforce during the last 12 months.
General Motors, the county's largest employer, has added approximately 75 people over the last 12 months, with more likely to come, according to spokeswoman Alicia Kocher.
"(GM has) had a few plant closing announcements," she said.
As other plants have closed, work from those facilities has shifted to places like Marion. Kocher said tax abatements from Marion's City Council have paved the way to additional operations to come to Grant County.
"With the increase in production, we have to increase manpower," Kocher said.
In her opinion, leadership and employees alike at the Marion plant work hard to ensure that the local plant is competitive and productive for the company.
"They do provide high-quality work to our customers," she said.
Wal-Mart Distribution Center 7055 in Gas City now employs about 865 workers, according to general manager Scott Murphy.
At this time last year, "We were probably at about 825," Murphy said. "The biggest factor (to cause the increase) is we've expanded our service territory."
When the facility was first announced in early 2005, it was estimated that it would bring 600 jobs to the area.
Murphy said the distribution center has also benefited from an increase in the number of stores in its area, mostly by older Wal-Marts being transformed into supercenters.
The Wal-Mart company as a whole feels very good about the operation in Gas City, Murphy said.
"We've had a lot of success in this location," he said.
At Indiana Wesleyan University, there was a net gain of about 20 full-time employees from 2008 to 2009, bringing its total full-time workforce to about 1,025, according to Neil Rush, director of human resources.
Though the university still grew, it was much slower than the 129 additional full-time workers that were added between 2007 and 2008, he said.
"Growth has been a lot more modest," he said. "We've come up just a little bit."
Rush feels there have been a number of factors that have helped IWU continue to grow. He cited the weak economy and a good university administration.
"Dr. (Henry) Smith (president) and the other leaders give a lot of discretion to other individuals to be innovative and expand with new programs," Rush said.