Chrysler to add 1,800 jobs at Belvidere factory
By JASON KEYSER and DAVID MERCER Associated Press February 2, 2012 5:48PM
Employees at the Chrysler Plant in Belvidere, Ill., listen as Sergio Marchionne, chairman and CEO of Chrysler Group LLC, announces that Chrysler will add a third shift to begin production of the 2013 Dodge Dart, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012 in Belvidere. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
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Updated: March 4, 2012 8:16AM
BELVIDERE, Ill. — Chrysler said Thursday that it is hiring 1,800 new employees as it increases production at its plant in Belvidere, a once-dominant manufacturing area that now has the state’s highest unemployment rate and has been battered by the economic downturn.
The news, some said, should provide both financial and psychological boosts to a region — including nearby Rockford — more accustomed to headlines about layoffs, closures and large numbers of unemployed residents.
Chrysler said at a news conference at the sprawling plant that about 500 of the new employees will work on the new Dodge Dart while the others will work on the existing Jeep Compass and Liberty models. All are expected to be hired by the third quarter of this year. The plant already employs about 2,700 people and creates hundreds of other jobs at nearby parts suppliers and other vendors.
Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne acknowledged the area’s struggles when he spoke to several hundred workers assembled at the plant. Chrysler laid off almost 1,000 employees in Belvidere in 2008 before emerging from bankruptcy with new owners. Unemployment in Boone County, where the plant is located, was a state-high 14 percent in December. Winnebago County, where Rockford is, had a jobless rate of 12.2 percent.
“I know that times you’ve endured in the recent past were not easy,” Marchionne said. “In 2009, when we emerged from bankruptcy, there was only one shift that was running here ... with little hope and tremendous uncertainty.”
AP
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