GE Aviation begins hiring for Lafayette, Indiana, plant

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) – In March, GE Aviation announced plans for a jet engine assembly plant in Lafayette. With it comes 200 jobs. A bulk of the staff that will open the plant in September of 2015 will be hired about a year to the date of the GE announcement.

In an email, Plant Manager Eric Matteson said five people have been hired. Three more will be hired in January. Then 10 technicians will be hired on in March. Come September, 27 people will open up the new plant.

“As this facility moves forward in its construction phases, you want to have people trained when they have to get ready to set the machinery and bring in the equipment and those things,” Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski said. “So, it’s great to see that hiring process start.”

GE released a video advertising the job openings.

Roswarski said some of the high-skilled jobs will require some certifications in aircraft mechanics. He hopes those certifications give people something to work toward.

“They can really see light at the end of the tunnel,” Roswarski said. “If they work to get that education and get those certifications, there will be opportunities here in the community.”

Matteson says 75 percent of the more than 200 applicants have been from Indiana.

Roswarski hopes the openings can help local people and bring new people to town.

“We’ll have some local people that will get those jobs, and we’ll have people who will relocate,” Roswarski said. “But when people relocate for those kinds of jobs, they buy houses, they buy cars, they become part of the community.”

Matteson said the majority of the 200 jobs will be filled between 2016 and 2018.

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