Nissan’s Smyrna plant is adding a third shift to its lineup this year, creating 810 new jobs, reported Gov. Bill Haslam last week. The shift is intended to handle increased numbers required to begin production on the Nissan Leaf, an electric powered car. Also, next year will see them manufacturing the Nissan Rogue, a small SUV that has never been produced in the States before.
The plant already produces four models of cars: the Altima, Maxima, Pathfinder, and Infiniti JX. Nissan has been in Smyrna for 30 years; they now have both the plant in Smyrna and Nissan’s North American headquarters in nearby Franklin, TN.
About 2,000 jobs have been created in the state of TN because of Nissan since the middle of last year, and about 6,350 already work at the Smyrna plant.
“Nissan and Tennessee have enjoyed a long and successful partnership, and this announcement shows the strength of the company and the market demand for its products,” Haslam said in his statement.
Nissan announced this third shift addition in August, but it is only now becoming clear how many new jobs that will create. Hiring for the positions have been underway for months, and many of them have been filled, but Nissan says it is actively hiring many other positions at the present time. Interested parties should visit the Nissan website and go through the Careers page.
There are a good handful of Macon Countyians who already make the commute to Smyrna for employment—it’s about 1 1/4 hours one way—and this announcement could be significant for others in the county who are currently on the job hunt.
“We’ve got a few people working at that plant now,” said Macon County Mayor Shelvy Linville, “but not too many. Hopefully this could create opportunity for many more… any time you hear of a plant adding that number of jobs, especially an employer like Nissan… hopefully, our workforce will be prepared and eligible, and fortunate enough to fill some of those positions.”
This announcement comes on the heels of other good news for the auto industry in Tennessee. General Motors also announced expansion in August, saying that it will add 500 new jobs for the production of its new Ecotek model at the Spring Hill plant, along with the Chevrolet Equinox and other unnamed models.
Volkswagen AG said in July that it would be increasing production by 30,000 cars next year, requiring 1,000 new employees.
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