Workers with the Shaw group continue construction at the V.C. Summer Nuclear plants new reactor sites.

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Assembly jobs at the Shaw group construction site have waxed and waned during the course of the project thus far, but more jobs are expected to be added.

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WINNSBORO — In the winter of 2012 Fairfield County Council met with officials from the Shaw Group, the company responsible for hiring workers at the expansion taking place at the county’s V.C. Summer nuclear facility.

To support efforts to hire locally, Shaw recently opened a recruitment center in Midland’s Tech Quick Job Center in Winnsboro.

Open every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the center is not a place to fill out applications or air HR grievances. At the center are experienced Shaw recruiters who can help job seekers with the first step in the application process — creating an online profile at www.shawgrp.com/careers.

Nicholle Ogrodnick, marketing and communications specialist with Shaw’s Power Group, said the Quickjobs location averages 15 visits per week.

“Based on demographics from the start of 2013, Shaw hires almost 60 percent of our skilled workforce from the state of South Carolina,” Ogrodnick said. “A little over half of those employees are from the four surrounding counties — Fairfield, Lexington, Richland and Newberry counties. Currently, the V.C. Summer consortium for Units 2 and 3 employs approximately 1,550 individuals.”

Despite recent layoffs related to rebar difficulties in the construction process, Shaw continues to seek qualified and experienced candidates for a range of skilled positions including welders and pipe fitters.

Gentry Brann, vice president of investor relations and corporate communications for the Shaw Group, said “the reduction is necessary to adjust the project staff to better align with our current scope of operation. As typical with any large construction project, the workforce will ramp up and down as a normal course of business.”

Over the duration of the project, Shaw plans to hire 3,000 to 3,500 employees. Brann said there is a lot of work remaining on the facility, including on the nuclear islands, cooling towers, the turbine and the balance of the plant.

As such, the hiring program will remain in place as a tool to help remove a barrier Fairfield County residents might have to potential employment.