Ford Will Hire 1,800 Workers at Louisville Plant

Starting today at 5:oo this afternoon, Ford will begin hiring 1,800 workers for the newly re-tooled Louisville Assembly Plant.The plant recently underwent a $600 million renovation project to prepare it to build several new types of vehicles, including variations on the popular Escape. Ford says the plant is the most modern and flexible in the company.Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer praised the move as an important step in his plans for the city.“Starting today and continuing for one week Ford is accepting applications for 1,800 new jobs,” he said. “This is the biggest expansion of jobs in Louisville by an individual company in years. It’s a major boost to our economy and more importantly it’s a major boost to the ten of thousands of citizens who are unemployed and looking for work.”Mayor Greg Fischer touted the plant as a step toward building a business corridor between Louisville and Lexington, which he's asked the Brookings Institution to study.“On a broader scale what we’re going to be doing with this Brookings report is the corridor between Lexington and Louisville, arguably we're one of the manufacturing centers in the United States, if not the world," he said. " So we have identified an area broadly labeled ‘advanced manufacturing’ with ‘new automotive’ being the term we are using here, to where we feel like we can be best in country or best in world. "The total number of employees at the plant will be 2,900. Of that, nearly 1,000 jobs will go to workers previously laid off from the plant, while about 260 will transfer from the Kentucky Truck Plant and other facilities. The remaining 1,800 jobs will be filled with new applicants.Applications will be accepted until Thursday, July 14 at the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training at 600 W Cedar in downtown Louisville.