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Demand at Shearer’s Snacks Brings Jobs to Jackson County

2 min read

One of Jackson County’s largest employers is adding jobs in the coming weeks. Shearer’s Snacks, Newport’s top manufacturing company, announced it is in the process of hiring 85 employees to meet increased product demand.

While no expansion is currently planned, the company hopes to fill the additional positions, which range from supervisor to production line works and packers, by early December. The increase will bring the total number of workers to 480. 

According to Newport Economic Developer Jon Chadwell, the initial job fair that was held a few weeks ago was a success. 

“We had a positive turnout and I think they will be able to fill those positions easily within the month,” Chadwell said. “It’s always nice to have jobs open up around Christmastime.”

Shearer’s Snacks was founded in the mid-1970s and is headquartered in Massillon, Ohio. The international distributor supplies a variety of snacks to North America, Australia, Asia, Central and South America through 11 production facilities throughout the country. Its products range from organic, gluten free and kosher salty snacks including potato chips, rice crisps, whole- and multi-grain chips, pretzels, popcorn, cheese curls, a variety of pellet based and extruded snacks, as well as a full line of cookies, crackers and wafers. 

According to the Shearer’s Snacks website, the company is seeing growth due from private label acquisitions in 2014 and 2015 from Snyder’s-Lance, Medallion Foods from ConAgra Foods, a Barrel O’Fun, which includes names like Larry the Cable Guy, and Rachel’s. The Newport plant, which has been in operation for 40 years, serves as the company’s only production location in Arkansas. 

Chadwell explained that due to the volume of new positions, the hiring will be completed through a local temp agency. The pay for the positions will start at $11.50 for the first 90 days. Pay increases and benefits will be available once workers are hired as full-time employees by Shearer’s Snacks after the preliminary three months.

Jackson County employment statistics have continually improved this year, even outpacing U.S. employment growth. The county’s total number of unemployed workforce, which is currently slated at 431, has dropped by more than 25 percent since 2016. The total number of civilian workforce is slightly over 6,000 and has seen about 1 percent growth since last year. 

Newport hit an unemployment low of 4.8 percent in April. Arkansas continues to see historic lows unemployment lows, now at 3.4 percent, while the U.S. unemployment rate is 4.2 percent.

Also hiring in the county: the Grimes and McPherson state prison units. Job fairs for those jobs are scheduled for the Newport Economic Development Commission office in Newport. Those 20 openings, which will start at more than $30,000 and include state benefits and retirement, would bring the total employment increase to more than 100 workers in Jackson County before the close of 2017. 

“Adding 105 new jobs is the equivalent to bringing a new factory to the area,” Chadwell said. “The county gets the benefit of the added workforce without the infrastructure cost of building a new facility.”

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