For Fayetteville area, 'more people, more business,' Amazon warehouse is all good news
Amazon is expected to bring about 500 full-time jobs to Fayetteville when it opens its new fulfillment center next year.
The company has already posted online want ads for its Fayetteville facility, which includes up to $3,000 signing bonuses.
Amazon’s 1.3-million-square-foot facility is getting built on 94 acres inside Fayetteville’s Military Industrial Park, near Interstate 295 near Fort Bragg. The facility is code named "Project Bronco" by economic development leaders.
WRAL News spoke with the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Corporation President and CEO Robert Van Geons about what a major player like Amazon does to the Cumberland County labor pool when small businesses are competing for workers.
“We have more than 9,000 positions available here in Cumberland County,” Van Geons said. “Everything from IT to health care to hospitality, so there’s a great deal of opportunity for our community, which does still have one of the higher unemployment rates of a metro in the state.”
Data from the Cumberland County Workforce Development Board shows the county had 7,020 people unemployed and the county’s unemployment rate was 5.5% in February. The county’s unemployment rate is down from 5.7% in January. However, it’s higher than the state’s 3.7% unemployment rate.
As of February, there are 120,277 people employed in Cumberland County. There are 4,811 more people employed than there were in February 2021.
"Obviously, we hope to get these high-skilled jobs from Amazon, but at the same time, we also have individuals who are not quite [as] high-skilled, but also need to fill those other jobs,” said Fayetteville State University Dean of Broadwell College of Business and Economics Ulysses Taylor. “And so, I think it will be a good balance Amazon and the local companies here."
Taylor said he wasn’t worried about Amazon’s impact on smaller businesses in the area.
“I don’t think it will adversely impact those individuals and their companies because I think the work force is so diverse in Cumberland County that we have enough work force and labor market to meet all the needs,” Taylor said.
WRAL News also spoke with Nate Ernst, part owner of Luigi’s Italian Chophouse and Bar in Fayetteville, about
“To me, it’s a good thing,” Ernst said. “We’re proud members of the community for a long time, so anything that’s pushing Fayetteville forward, adding new industry, more business, more commerce, we’re all for it.”
When Ernst was asked if Amazon will stretch the area’s labor pool, he said he “hopes not.”
“I hope it bring more people to the area,” Ernst said.
Ernst said his family has owned a business in Fayetteville for 70 years. This year will mark 40 years that Luigi’s has been at its building at 528 North McPherson Church Road.
“More people, more business, more industry, to me, that’s all good news,” Ernst said
