Dougherty County-- There are as many as two hundred job openings at the base Maintenance Center, because they can't find enough workers with the necessary training or skills to do the work.
James Davis rebuilds a 50-caliber machine gun at the small arms repair center at the Albany Marine Base. Troops in Iraq need as many of these weapons as Albany can provide immediately. But the base can't find qualified people to do the work.
"Right now, if we could get the people, we could put 14 people to work right now," said Supervisor of Small Arms Repair George Potter.
The Marine Base has hired more than 300 skilled tradesmen since July, because of the workload. But there are close to 200 jobs still open. Human Resource Director Don Jensen said, "We've tried advertising in various military times, the local papers, regional papers. We just keep struggling."
Most of the technical jobs available involve calibration and metrology, electronic mechanics and technicians. Jobs that pay $17.00 to $20.00 an hour. And the demand is growing.
"The next couple of years it's probably going to stay pretty hot and heavy," Potter says.
The troops need 50 caliber machine guns and 81 millimeter mortars. Albany base workers have been putting in overtime trying to fill the need, but they need more people to do the work, with Marines lives depending on it.
"Some of our folks are working 12 hour days, six days a week," Jensen said. "After a while that wears a person down to where they can't keep performing. So we need to supplemate them."
There are hundreds of job openings at the Maintenance Center at Albany's Marine Base now, with more new openings expected soon. If you are interested, call their job hotline at 229-639-5458.
posted by dave.miller@walb.com
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