GE Healthcare plans to add about 170 jobs in Wisconsin over the next 18 months, spread among Wauwatosa, Oak Creek and Madison.
The Chicago-based medical technologies and services General Electric subsidiary, which previously had its U.S. headquarters in Wauwatosa, has a significant local presence. There are 50,000 global employees of GE Healthcare, about 6,000 of whom are based in Wisconsin. Approximately 5,000 of those are in southeastern Wisconsin.
About 100 of the jobs now being created in Wisconsin are part of GE Healthcare’s ongoing transition of a neonatal incubator and warmer manufacturing plant in Laurel, Maryland to Milwaukee County and Madison over the next 18 months. While some leaders from the Maryland plant are already relocating to Wauwatosa, it is unclear how many of the 180 Maryland employees will make the move to Wisconsin, said GE Healthcare spokesperson Ben Fox. The 100 positions will be spread among Wauwatosa, which will house leadership, engineering, marketing and support functions, and Madison, where the manufacturing will be done. The Madison plant already manufactures life support equipment, which is similar to the neonatal intensive care equipment.
“There are going to be more than 100 new Maternal-Infant Care jobs,” Fox said. “That includes some people who are being transferred, that includes some new hires.”
Last week, GE Healthcare closed on the acquisition of UK-based Monica Healthcare, a wireless fetal heartbeat monitoring technology company, which will be integrated with the Maternal-Infant Care business. Its employees will remain in place at its UK facility, but the new business is expected to contribute to growth in Wisconsin jobs moving forward, Fox said.
Another 70 of the jobs being added are in Oak Creek, where the company continues to add to its workforce at the Repair Operations Center.
In the fall, GE moved its repair operations to the current 280,000-square-foot Oak Creek location, at 120 W. Opus Drive, and then hired about 60 new employees, bringing it to 150 employees. The total employment at that facility will be about 220 people after this most recent hiring push.
The Oak Creek facility will host a grand opening with U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Friday morning.
