New organization helps counties' growth problems from Hyundai Metaplant

With the Hyundai Metaplant ahead of schedule, counties surrounding it are struggling to match the influx boom coming with it. A workforce study on the Savannah region reveals the area, like the U.S., is experiencing a record low unemployment, meaning its struggling to fill job vacancies. And the Hyundai Metaplant could make that worse, bringing 15,000 jobs to the region. “When the Hyundai Project announced, the thing that was keeping me up at night was where are we going to get the people to work in these companies and how are we going to ensure that all of our other existing industries are taken care of," said Anna Chafin, president and CEO of RISE.Chafin created the organization RISE, which stands for Regional Industry Support Enterprise, in December 2023 to assist counties struggling with growth challenges in relation to the plant. "We will have a focus on housing as well as transportation," Chafin said, "We'll focus on local marketing for our job seekers here, but then also working to attract additional talent to our region."The workforce study also shows that 84% of new hires have a high school diploma, and RISE plans to take advantage of that."A focus on encouraging our high school graduates to go immediately into careers once they graduate," Chafin said. Chafin said another big focus is the military. RISE met with Fort Stewart leadership to talk partnership."Not only how can we better partner with those service members that are separating, but also helping those 3000 spouses that are looking for work to help make connections within the careers in industry, and then the dependents as well," Chafin said. There's another ongoing issue that the Hyundai Plant will worsen: the rise in housing prices."There is an approximately 10,000-unit housing shortage at the current time and into the near future, and also that as a result of the growth and development associated with the electric vehicle plant," Georgia Southern University economics professor Dr. Michael Toma said. Toma said property values will increase in the long run, but that it can be a good thing."That’s not a bad thing because it's homeownership was one way the fundamentally that the middle class saves for retirement," Toma said. Overall, Toma said the Hyundai Metaplant will help the economy, descibring it like winning a lottery ticket."Something like a giant funnel in the sky hanging over our regional economy and the rest of the world is pouring money into that funnel, watering our regional economy so that it will grow so fundamentally in the long run," Toma said.