Fayetteville Today

If you are looking for a job in Cumberland County, you literally have thousands of choices, a Monday report from WRAL said.

"We have more than 9,000 positions available here in Cumberland County," Robert Van Geons, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Corporation, told WRAL. 

A new Amazon fulfillment center opening next year in Fayetteville is expected to employ 500 people, the report said.

The company is offering signing bonuses of up to $3,000 for workers at its 1.3 million-square-foot facility in Fayetteville's Military Industrial Park near Fort Bragg and Interstate 295. The code name given to the facility by economic leaders is "Project Bronco."

"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," Ulysses Taylor, dean of the Broadwell College of Business and Economics at Fayetteville State University, told WRAL. "And so, I think it will be a good balance Amazon and the local companies here."

Taylor noted that the local work force is diverse enough to meet the needs of the labor market.

Local residents such as Nate Ernst, part-owner of Luigi's Italian Chophouse and Bar in Fayetteville, are saying good things about the growth, the report 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," he said. "I hope it brings more people to the area. More people, more business, more industry, to me, that's all good news."