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Covation Announces Call Center in Hickory,NC
| | Covation - 12/31/2008 | | |
Catawba County business recruiters announced a jobs windfall Tuesday, saying a high-tech call center is headed to Hickory with plans to hire 913 workers in the next two years.
Atlanta-based Covation will hire 544 people in 2009 and an additional 369 in 2010, said Scott Millar, president of Catawba County Economic Development Corp.
The average salary for the workforce will be $34,500, not including benefits, Millar said.
The center will offer technical support and customer service, mainly for telecommunications companies rather than individual consumers.
Millar said the announcement gives hope to the Hickory area, which has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs over the past decade. The area's unemployment rate was 8.4 percent in October, above the state average.
It's the second call-center success in Catawba County in 2008. Convergys opened a call center there earlier this year and now employs nearly 450 people.
Covation will occupy a 60,000-square-foot speculative building finished this past summer. The company plans to invest nearly $5.5 million for the project, according to a statement from Gov. Mike Easley's office. Incentives include a $600,000 state grant.
The center will be the first North Carolina site for Covation.
| | | | Number of Employees: | 913 | | Square Footage: | 60,000 | | | | Contact Name: | NA | | Contact Phone: | NA | | Contact Email: | NA | | Web Address: | | | City: | Hickory | | State: | North Carolina | | Country: | US | | |
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