Business News
Employers hiring 50 factory workers
The Georgia Department of Labor is helping a staffing company, North Georgia Staffing, recruit more than 50 manufacturing workers for plants in Rockmart and Rome, Ga.
The company is hiring forklift operators, quality control inspectors, robot welders and stamping operators.
Recruitment fairs are scheduled this month and Cedartown Career Center, 262 North Park Blvd. in Cedartown. The recruitments have been set for Friday, April 24; Wednesday, April 29; Wednesday, May 6; and Wednesday, May 13. All recruitments will be held from 12 noon to 2 p.m.
Due to U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations, applicants must be at least 18 years old. They must also have a high school diploma and at least one year’s experience.
For more information about
the recruitments, contact GDOL’s Cedartown Career Center at 770-749-2213.
TVA completes gas plant buy
The Tennessee Valley Authority has purchased a 700-megawatt natural gas plant in Ackerman, Miss.
According to the utility, TVA has bought electricity from the plant since 2008. The board of directors voted in February to pursue purchasing the plant itself from Quantum Choctaw Power, and that transaction was completed on Tuesday.
The high- efficiency plant uses two gas turbines and one steam turbine to produce energy.
It is the sixth combined-cycle gas facility TVA has built or purchased since 2007, with two more under construction. The facility will be renamed Ackerman Combined Cycle Plant.
TVA is the nation’s largest public utility with about 9 million customers in seven states.
Economic gauge rises during March
An index designed to predict the future health of the economy slowly crept upward for the third-straight month, a sign that the pace of growth has been weakening since the start of 2015.
The New York-based Conference Board said Friday that its index of leading indicators rose 0.2 percent in March, after gains of 0.1 percent in February and 0.2 percent in January.
Building permits were the weakest part of the index, while slowdowns in average working hours and new factory orders have also been in a drag over the past six months.
Analysts said that the smaller increases over the past two months may be signaling a period of more moderate activity.
“Although the leading economic index still points to a moderate expansion in economic activity, its slowing growth rate over recent months suggests weaker growth may be ahead,” said Conference Board economist Ataman Ozyildirim.
The index is composed of 10 forward-pointing indicators. Six of the 10 indicators increased in March, with the biggest support coming from the meager number of people filing for unemployment benefits, the spread on interest rates and consumer expectations.
The three indicators which subtracted from growth were building permits, new factory orders and average weekly manufacturing hours. Stock prices — another of the indicators — were basically unchanged in March.
Many economists expect growth to slow from its annual rate of 2.2 percent in the October-December quarter. The Atlanta Federal Reserve projects that growth in the first three months of 2015 could be as low as 0.1 percent.
The deceleration contrasts with the optimism coming into the year. Solid hiring through 2014 led many economists to forecast solid growth driven by consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.