When Chicago officials first put out the call for workers for Ford Motor Co.'s new supplier park, the response was overwhelming.
Some 6,000 people swamped orientation sessions held by the city two years ago. On Tuesday, city officials said that more than 1,000 Chicago residents had been placed in jobs at the supplier park on the Southeast Side.
Nine companies opened plants in the manufacturing campus last summer to supply major components to three new vehicles Ford is building in Chicago.
Chicago residents account for 1,038 of the positions, or about 80 percent of the roughly 1,300 jobs created by those suppliers, David Hanson, commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Workforce Development, said.
Mayor Richard Daley said the jobs represent an "important milestone" for the city. He spoke during a news conference Tuesday at TDS Automotive, one of the companies in what Ford calls the Chicago Manufacturing Campus.
The 155-acre supplier park is located about a half-mile east of Ford's assembly plant, 12600 S. Torrence Ave.
MOWD developed Chicago Advantage to help steer city residents to available jobs at the campus, and sponsored eight orientation sessions to solicit job applicants. The city also assessed applicants' skill levels and helped line up additional training for those who needed to update or upgrade their skills, MOWD said.
While not everyone who applied for a job at Ford got one, MOWD was able to place some applicants with other companies. Hanson said that 259 Ford applicants were hired for jobs by other South Side firms, including Carlo Steel, Paket Corp. and Smedberg Machine.
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