News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
People seeking jobs in highway construction now have a one-stop place to find work.
The Now Hiring Tennessee campaign launched a centralized website for job seekers to look for positions with multiple companies performing different aspects of building and maintaining roads. Kent Starwalt is the Executive Vice President of the Tennessee Road Builders Association. He said the goal is to bring everyone to one place.
“We thought the creation of this website is where somebody could go to one place and fill out a questionnaire and that questionnaire is sent on to these employers and they would respond by to these prospective employees,” Starwalt said. “We really thought it was a great way to connect those people with the jobs available out there.”
Starwalt said the industry has struggled to find enough workers for several years. The Tennessee Road Builders Association represents around 325 companies involved in and supporting the highway construction and materials industry. The industry has approximately 32,000 workers in Tennessee.
The website will showcase various job examples for workers with many different skill levels and experience. Wages are also highlighted to help a job seeker get an idea of their learning potential. Starwalt said there is a lot of room for advancement in the industry.
“You can come into the industry making $13-to$15-dollars-an-hour,” Starwalt said. “If you have skills or can operate a piece of equipment, you can make much more than that. There’s a chance for advancement in the industry if you have some people skills or if you have some organizational skills, you can become a foreman or a superintendent. You can make, ultimately, six figures in this industry. That’s not uncommon.”
NowHiringTN.com launched on Wednesday. Starwalt said he hopes the campaign is a benefit to both companies and those needing a good paying job.
“We just want to let people know these sort of jobs are out there,” Starwalt said. “We know there’s a lot of people unemployed right now. We know that people start in one particular field and it may be a dead-end job, and we just want to let them know that these are really good jobs.”
