Tagged: appliance park

At its height, the General Electric Plant in Louisville employed 23,000 people. That was in 1973.

After that, the plant began to shrink — laying off more and more employees. Like other manufacturing giants, it followed the outsourcing trend, sending jobs overseas, and especially China.

By 2011, GE bottomed-out with less than just 1,900 jobs in the Louisville plant.

But in February of 2012, something began to change. New jobs were created. A new assembly line opened — the first since 1955.

General Electric is hiring more employees than expected to manufacture its new bottom-freezer refrigerator at Louisville's Appliance Park.

GE officials previously announced a total of 600 production line employees would build the new product.  The company currently employs around 400 workers on the first shift, according to spokeswoman Kim Freeman. When the second shift begins later this summer, a total of 772 employees will be working on the appliance, she said.

The addition of 172 production line employees is a testament to the product, said Freeman.