Volkswagen has received more than 65,000 applications in total as the company closed its application line for production team member positions on Sunday.
During the three-week period since Oct. 26, more than 35,000 people applied for production team member positions at Volkswagen’s new production plant which will go into operation in 2011.
In addition, the company has received approximately 30,000 applications for skilled maintenance and professional positions to date.
“We are overwhelmed by the response and we are very satisfied with the result. It gives us the confidence that we will be able to hire all the capable and flexible people we need to build our cars safely and with the highest quality,” said Hans-Herbert Jagla, executive vice president of human resources, Volkswagen Group of America Chattanooga Operations, LLC. “These production team members will make up the majority of our 2,000-plus workforce here in Chattanooga and are the key to the successful launch of our new plant in 2011.”
“As the next step we will begin the assessment process to select our local production team members from the applicants”, said Ryan Rose, general manager of human resources for the Chattanooga Operations. “We ask all applicants to be patient, as we begin the hiring for the first positions in spring 2010 and will continue into 2011.”
Volkswagen Group of America Inc. will invest $1 billion in the local economy for the Chattanooga plant and create 2,000 direct jobs in the region. According to independent studies, the new Volkswagen plant is expected to generate $12 billion in income growth and an additional 9,500 jobs over the life of the project. The Chattanooga plant will build a new midsize sedan specially designed for the North American market. Approximately 30 percent of these cars will be powered by Volkswagen's TDI Clean Diesel Technology.