The labor pool brought GE to Jacksonville: Here's where the workers will come from

Jacksonville Business Journal

Colleen Michele Jones

GE Oil & Gas’ decision to open an advanced manufacturing plant in Jacksonville will open the door to at least 500 jobs — the majority of which will be filled by skilled workers drawn from the local workforce.

The company announced plans today to move into a $50 million newly constructed facility in the Cecil Commerce Center that will manufacture GE’s Mooney regulators and Becker control valves for the energy industry. The facility is expected to be operational by November, with about 50 senior-level workers and executives being relocated from other GE plants in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

GE will begin scouring the Northeast Florida labor force to fill hundreds of other positions by the first quarter of 2015, according to Candace Moody, vice president of communications for CareerSource Northeast Florida.

The 500-plus jobs that will be created by the manufacturing facility here in Jacksonville will be phased in over about three years.

Hiring managers from GE have reached out over the last few months to centers such as CareerSource, which will partner with GE in its recruiting efforts.

“One of the reasons Jacksonville was on the short list for this facility is that Jacksonville is one of the best manufacturing centers in the nation, and also because our military workforce has the kind of skills that transfer so easily to what GE is looking for,” said Moody.

Entry-level workers will be paid, on average $48,850, or about $25 an hour. The annual mean wage for similar positions within the manufacturing sector in Jacksonville was $42,130 for 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

GE has said it chose to open a facility in Jacksonville to meet the growing demand for its industrial technology solutions worldwide. The new facility will used computer-aided advanced manufacturing techniques to produce pressure valves for the energy industry — an area with as much potential for future growth that Chuck Nugent, vice president of manufacturing for GE Oil & Gas, calls it “the next Industrial Revolution.”