Opportunity was the word of the day at the Samsung Taylor Site Job Fair Sept. 1, sponsored by Samsung Austin Semiconductor, at the Williamson County Expo Center in Taylor.
“Judge, when we started our early conversations with Samsung back in January 2021, we talked about opportunity in terms of generational opportunity, looking forward for decades and generations to come, and what Samsung’s presence in Williamson County would mean for all of us,” said Taylor’s Mayor Brandt Rydell, to a group of local and regional leaders, including County Judge Bill Gravel at a press conference.
“And it’s great to take that long term view, but now we have a very immediate example of opportunities that are available right here and right now in Taylor and Williamson County,” Rydell added.
Gravell said the opportunity for the region’s future is even brighter.
“I just want to say that four years ago we made a commitment in Williamson County to make it the economic development hub of the world when it comes to technology, but we are not finished,” Gravell said. “In fact, I was offered a job just five minutes ago to be a concrete truck driver starting wage at $22 an hour, and then I calculated my salary as county judge, and I was like hmmm isn’t that amazing? In Taylor, Texas jobs like that are available.”
Other leaders who showed up to celebrate the day included Tia Stone, president of the Taylor Chamber of Commerce, Paul Fletcher, chief executive officer of Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area, as well as Michele Glaze, Samsung’s Head of Communications & Community Affairs.
“Samsung is very honored to host a job fair to provide opportunity,” Glaze said. “Opportunity is probably a word you are going to be hearing a lot today.”
Glaze said about 500 job seekers attended during the two days of fair, which focused on subcontracting openings Aug. 31, followed by direct hiring the next day. In addition to Samsung, and its sister company Samsung E&C America, a range of ancillary companies sent recruiters for opportunities in everything from maintenance and welding to safety management.
Hutto resident Kyle Spinder, who attended the second day of the fair, said he was excited to learn Samsung was hiring people like himself without a college degree.
“My mom told me just to show up,” said the 23-year-old Spinder. “She’s going to be up here next, and she wants to work at Samsung too.”
After the conference, Fletcher said this is the beginning of a wave just hitting the region with the factory’s construction, and then culminating in about 2,000 jobs when the project is completed in 2024.
“You have outside people coming in … and they will come in and need a place to live and restaurants to go to, grocery stores to go to, and they will be here as long as construction lasts, which could be the next 10 years, based on things in the pipeline,” Fletcher said.
Gravell echoed this sentiment.
“I think Taylor has gone from being a bedroom community to being a destination location in Texas,” he said. “There are people coming from all across the state, nation and around the world to come and work on this construction project. It could be the largest industrial construction project going on in America … It’s what Kennedy used to say about the economy, my favorite quote, ‘A rising tide lifts all boats.’ And the rising tide right now in America, the epicenter of that, is Taylor Texas.”
