Volkswagen Adds 800 New Jobs at Tennessee Plant

Volkswagen Group of America, Chattanooga Operations has announced that it is creating an additional 800 new jobs at its Tennessee manufacturing facility.

The positions are needed as Volkswagen Chattanooga continues to ramp up capacity to meet customer demand for the new U.S.-produced Passat. This comes on top of an announcement earlier this year of 200 additional jobs at the Chattanooga plant, bringing the total new jobs in 2012 to 1,000.

"This is a clear sign that the plant ramp-up has been successful and is a validation that the Passat is of the highest quality," said Frank Fischer, CEO and chairman of Volkswagen Chattanooga. "Our plant was designed to be flexible in order to respond to market demand, and I'm proud that we've achieved this so quickly. This is a good day for Volkswagen and for the people of Chattanooga."

The Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga currently employs more than 2,700 people, about 2,200 by Volkswagen and an additional 500 by Aerotek, the company's staffing partner.

“We have made a commitment to this market, both in terms of products and investment,” said Jonathan Browning, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America Inc. “Our original commitment to invest $4 billion into the U.S. market continues to grow, with a parts depot announced last week and now another further commitment to employment here in Chattanooga. Quite plainly, we need more Passats to meet the market demand, and I'm glad that we can respond so quickly by adding staff in Chattanooga."

The plant has been working daily overtime to meet the market demand. The additions to the workforce will allow the plant to extend its weekly production capacity while at the same time reducing the amount of overtime work for the existing team members. The plant, which is the world's only LEED-certified Platinum factory, opened in May of 2011 and builds the 2012 Volkswagen Passat.

"These 800 new positions are a combination of production and support functions," said Hans-Herbert Jagla, executive vice president of human resources. "We will use this opportunity to hire many of our current Aerotek contract employees, so Aerotek will be recruiting to fill full-time contract production positions that will open up as a result. We will also be hiring additional supervisors, quality engineers and professionals in a number of areas."

Applicants for production positions must be 18 years of age, have a high-school diploma or GED and have legal authorization to work in the U.S. Interested candidates can apply online with Aerotek at www.aerotektn.com. Aerotek will select candidates to move to the assessment process, including practical hands-on testing.

Candidates for professional positions like production supervisors, engineers and IT specialists should apply online with Volkswagen at www.vwjobschattanooga.com.