Online retail giant Amazon is hosting employment information sessions across the Miami Valley this week. The first was held Monday morning in Wilmington, where Amazon officials say they’re looking to hire hundreds of new workers at the company's new facility at Wilmington Air Park.
The jobs sorting packages and moving cargo are expected to start at $15 an hour -- a prospect that had attracted more than two dozen job seekers by 8 a.m.
Amazon's arrival is welcome news for Wilmington resident Charles Wells, who lost his job at DHL when the company closed its Wilmington operation in 2009, taking 8,000 jobs out of a community of 10,000 people.
Wells recalls working his way up the ladder at DHL, starting out sorting packages, then driving cargo vehicles. When DHL left, Wells was working in equipment repair.
Wells says he came to the Amazon job fair in hopes of landing a job using his old skills at Amazon’s new facility.
"This would mean something solid again. I had 13 years in at Airborne," he says. "So, I just want to go back to the same field. I enjoyed the work. No matter how cold it got, it was just a good time. There are a lot of good people I miss. You almost get to be like a family there."
Amazon is holding hiring fairs all week in coordination with the state’s workforce agency Ohio Means Jobs. The next one is set for Xenia on Tuesday, Lebanon on Wednesday, Hillsboro on Thursday, and Wilmington again on Friday. For more information, visit the OhioMeansJobs’ .
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