Amid gloomy economic signs, U.S. Cellular flashed glimmers of hope as it built a pool of candidates Wednesday for 100 openings at its Waukesha call center.
The company attended the Waukesha County Workforce Development Spring Job Fair and directed hundreds of applicants to its online job application site.
'We're getting a lot more candidates into our pool because of the fact that so many people are out of jobs,' said Bill Isaac, director of U.S. Cellular's customer care center in Waukesha. But our focus is making sure that we're getting the right candidates that can take care of our customers, meet our customers' need. So it gives us an opportunity to have a larger pool to choose from.'
The Waukesha center already employs about 400 people and is one of five nationally that together handle about 2 million customer calls a month. The new jobs are full time, with hourly wages ranging from $13.33 to $15. Benefits including medical, dental and vision coverage and a company-matched 401 (k) begin with employment, Isaac said. New hires receive paid training.
Such hiring activity partly offsets further reports of job declines. The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development released figures Wednesday showing that through the first 20 weeks of 2009, the state received more initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits than it received through Week 36 of 2008.
The state is scheduled to report Thursday on the statewide unemployment rate and payroll estimates from April. Preliminary data suggests Wisconsin lost 128,300 jobs since April 2008, a 4.5% decline.