Milwaukee-based Super Steel LLC will hire 25 welders as it continues to grow to meet the demand of the construction and oil and gas industries.
Super Steel is growing in all areas of its business and has a strong backlog of work that President Dirk Smith expects will stretch into the first part of 2015.
“Agriculture is strong, transportation’s strong, industrial is very strong,” Smith said. “We’re picking up market share at our existing customers due to performance.”
The company is also picking up new customers, particularly in the booming construction and oil and gas sectors.
Super Steel is hosting two job fairs to fill the positions, on Saturday, Aug. 2, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and on Wednesday, Aug. 6, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at its headquarters, 7900 W. Tower Ave.
The jobs pay up to $25 per hour, and Super Steel is also offering up to $1,000 in signing bonuses.
Super Steel plans to add a total of 50 employees this year, bringing total employment to about 415, said Dirk Smith, president and chief executive officer.
The company has difficulty finding and retaining welders despite competitive wages because they are in such high demand in the area, Smith said. It has about a 50 percent retention rate for welders.
“Welders are somewhat nomadic,” he said. “We’ve created an environment here in Southeast Wisconsin where there’s high demand for welders— low supply, high demand.”
Super Steel is also hiring for engineering and project management positions to help it navigate an increasing workload.
“We’ve engaged quite a few recruiting agencies, and there just aren’t a lot of professional people in the manufacturing world right now as well,” Smith said. “I could add literally 65 people if they were out there, but we kind of augment it with overtime because we just know the candidates aren’t out there.”
