FedEx looks to add 1,200 jobs in state
FedEx is looking to bolster its ground delivery service in Connecticut by adding 1,200 workers to its operations in the state, according to company officials.
Positions available with FedEx Ground in Connecticut include package handlers, managers and other support staff. FedEx is holding an in-person hiring day for job applicants at the company’s ground hub on Ruby Road in Willington from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday.
Applicants also can apply for jobs on the company’s website.
David Westrick, a FedEx
Ground spokesman, said the company currently operates six Connecticut facilities and employs more than 4,000 people in the state.
“Current available positions are for more than seasonal employment, and include a mix of full- and part-time openings,” Westrick said. “While we are adding to our workforce to prepare for the busy holiday season, the rapid growth of e-commerce means that we are regularly recruiting for people to join our team.”
This is the second time this year that FedEx has announced a major hiring initiative. The company announced in May that it was looking to hire more than 600 package handlers for its Hartford-area operations.
Westrick said the new positions the company is seeking to fill are in addition to the new employees FedEx hired in May.
FedEx’s benefits include: Medical, dental and vision benefits after a short waiting period.
A $5,250 tuition reimbursement every year with no lifetime cap.
An employee discount program.
Applicants for FedEx jobs must be at least 18 years old, and there is no minimum education requirement for the positions.
FedEx is the latest employer with a presence in Connecticut to announce it is seeking to fills hundreds, or in some cases, thousands of jobs in the state. Shipping rivals UPS and Amazon already have announced they are looking to fill part- and full-time jobs in the state.
Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners, said while adding 1,200 new job is beneficial to Connecticut’s economy, it doesn’t have the same impact it would if the jobs that were being added were in the manufacturing or biotech sectors.
“Let me be clear: every job matters, every job counts and contributes in this economy,” KlepperSmith said. “We would love them to all be higher-paying jobs. But the economic landscape has transitioned and the jobs that are now being created have less of a trickle-down impact than those in manufacturing and biotech.”
Klepper-Smith said that for every manufacturing job created in Connecticut, the economic impact creates 1.5 jobs elsewhere within the economy. Jobs like the ones being created by FedEx have a lesser impact, adding just 0.5 job elsewhere in the economy, he said.
Today’s gig economy allow workers more flexibility in terms of when they work, according to Klepper-Smith. But the new economic model gives employers considerable advantages in terms of the wages they pay, keeping the cost of other benefits, like the cost of health care, down.
“We used to talk about just-in-time manufacturing,” Klepper-Smith said, referring to the concept of reducing the amount of time that a product spends going through the production process. “Now we’re talking about just-in-time employees, with workers being brought in only as they are needed.”