WSOC-TV, Charlotte, NC – January 11, 2011

Convergys Corporation a global leader in relationship management is seeking candidates for 140 new full-time positions at its contact center in Hickory, North Carolina.

Interested candidates from throughout the Catawba County area are invited to attend an on-site Job Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, January 11 at Convergys, 1507 7th Street, SE. New employees will provide inbound customer service and sales support for a Convergys client in the telecommunications industry.

Interested candidates may also apply online at www.convergys.com/careers or http://www.convergys.com/careers.

http://convergys.com/vision/index.php

“The growth of a current client program has enabled us to provide new employment opportunities for job seekers in the Catawba County area,” said Billie Coon, site leader for the Convergys contact center in Hickory. “In addition to solid customer service experience, we’re looking for candidates with a strong sales background who can help callers choose the best service plan for their needs.”

“Customer service continues to be a top priority for many companies,” Coon added. “These positions may provide the first step toward a career in the industry, in areas as diverse as recruitment, operations, or training.”

Convergys offers employees comprehensive paid training, competitive wages plus performance incentives, and benefits including medical and dental insurance, tuition reimbursement, 401(k), and paid and unpaid time off.

As part of the Hickory business community since 2008, Convergys encourages its employees to support the local community in which they live and work. Employees in Hickory recently shared a meal with those in need at a local soup kitchen. They also collected hats, scarves, gloves and coats for the Grace House homeless shelter, donated food for Human Society, and raised money throughout the year for United Way.

Potential candidates should possess extensive customer service and sales experience, strong computer/keyboarding skills, and the ability to work a flexible schedule, including weekends and holidays. Employment with Convergys also is contingent on the successful completion of a background check.

At Convergys, we believe in investing in the development of our people. Rather than have one set path, we have a variety of career tracks for employees to explore. Having a talented, motivated workforce maximizes our productivity and enhances the quality of service we offer all of our clients and their customers. This is another way we ensure our spot as a global leader in relationship management. We can relate.

About Convergys

Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG) is a global leader in relationship management. We provide solutions that drive more value from the relationships our clients have with their customers. Convergys turns these everyday interactions into a source of profit and strategic advantage for our clients.

For more than 30 years, our unique combination of domain expertise, operational excellence, and innovative technologies has delivered process improvement and actionable business insight to marquee clients all over the world.

Charlotte Business Journal –  January 6, 2012

Long-term mortgage rates fell this week, with the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan matching an all-time low.

Freddie Mac says 30-year fix-rate mortgages averaged 3.91 percent in the week ending Jan. 5, down from 3.95 percent the previous week and hitting the lowest mark since it has been keeping track.

Fifteen-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.23 percent, dipping from 3.24 percent the previous week.

One-year adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 2.80 percent this week, up from 2.78 percent last week.

Recent reports on housing have been encouraging.

The National Association of Realtors says pending sales of existing homes in November rose 7.3 percent to the strongest pace since April 2010. Construction spending rose 1.2 percent in November, with construction spending on residential projects up for the fourth consecutive month.

As previously reported, sales of existing homes in the Charlotte area rose 13 percent in November from the same period a year ago. Local buyers purchased 1,686 homes last month, up from 1,487 in November 2010, according to the North Carolina Association of Realtors.

WSOC-TV, Charlotte, NC - January 5, 2012

New numbers out Wednesday show orders at U.S. factories were up 1.8 percent in November after a two-month slide.

The Saertex plant in Huntersville, NC which spins fiberglass into composites used in wind energy, car and bus bodies and airplane wings, is a company with 175 workers that’s finding a way to grow even in this tough economy.

“If you see the numbers from 2010 to 2011, we are growing more than 25 percent,” said Stefan Maier, the Saertex general manager. “We added 45 employees in 2011.”  Saertex said it hopes to keep hiring more workers this year.

In fact, while uptown’s banks are shedding jobs, manufacturing companies have added more than 4,000 jobs in the past three years.

“It’s much bigger than most people realize,” said Tony Crumbley with the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce.

Crumbley said manufacturing jobs rival banking now, with 30,000 workers now spread across 1,100 local companies.

“The economic impact on this community is phenomenal,” Crumbley said. “You’re talking $37 billion a year in product produced here.”

Groninger and Co. makes machines that fill jars, vials and syringes for pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies. The jobs require higher skill but also offer higher pay that Lothar Burger said is helping manufacturers attract talent.

“Everybody thinks about banks and insurance, but there’s a good manufacturing area and I think these days, in manufacturing you can make a career,” Burger said.

Groninger is doing so well that it’s building a new plant it hopes to move into this spring.

Charlotte Business Journal, January 3, 2012

A company that already has a presence in Cleveland County is bringing 166 additional jobs to Shelby. 

Baldor Electric Co. is buying an existing 270,000-square-foot building on U.S. Highway 74 to boost the company’s local production of electric motors that are used in wind-power applications.

Baldor is investing $17 million in the operation.

Cleveland County Manager David Dear expects the plant’s work force will grow to 230 in the first few years of the operation. Others, including County Commissioner Eddie Holbrook, expect that number to grow to 300 within five years.

Baldor already operates a facility in Kings Mountain that employs 530. That facility also makes electric motors.

N.C. Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco were in Shelby on Tuesday to announce the new jobs.

Jerry Kellar of Benmar Properties in Gastonia, who bought the building as an investment in 2007, sold the facility to Baldor. The price wasn’t immediately disclosed. John Barker Sr. of John Barker Realty Inc. of Shelby brokered the deal.

Baldor is a unit of ABB Group, a $35 billion corporation based in Zurich, Switzerland.

The company is set to receive several incentives related to the Shelby project, including $400,000 from the One North Carolina Fund and $780,000 from the Rural North Carolina Center.

Cleveland County also has agreed to roll back the property taxes on the site by 65 percent for 10 years, based on the $17 million investment.

Charlotte Business Journal, 12/29/2011

Sales of existing homes in the Charlotte area rose 13 percent in November compared with that month a year ago, continuing a trend of increases since the summer when compared to 2010.

According to the North Carolina Association of Realtors, Charlotte buyers purchased 1,686 homes last month, up from 1,487 in November 2010.

The average sale price for a home sold in Charlotte last month was $192,472, an 11 percent decline from $215,239 during that month a year ago.

The number of home sales fell 10 percent from October to November.

Existing home sales statewide were up 8 percent statewide for November when compared with the previous year, while the average price declined 8 percent

Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, December 28, 2011

North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue announced today that Infinisource Holdings, Inc. will move their corporate headquarters from Coldwater, Michigan and start a new division in Charlotte.

The company currently has offices in Ohio, Florida and a regional headquarters in Michigan. Infinisource Holdings, a benefits administration company, will create 162 jobs with an average wage of more than $80,000 annually and plans to invest $500,000 in its new Charlotte facility over the next five years. The company is currently in lease negotiations for Charlotte office space.

“What better way to wrap up 2011 and ring in the New Year than with yet another corporate headquarters relocation for Charlotte,” said Bob Morgan, Charlotte Chamber President. “These high paying jobs will further enhance our thriving health care sector.”

Infinisource, a recent acquisition of Accel-KKR, provides administration for COBRA, Flexible Spending Accounts, Premium Only Plans, Health Reimbursement Arrangements, Health Spending Accounts, Direct Billing, Wellness Programs, Payroll and an on-line eligibility and enrollment solution. The company also offers educational seminars and webinars as well as a HIPAA privacy and security solutions. Infinisource focuses on benefits solutions for its more than 17,700 small- and mid-size employer clients by offering a complete suite of products and services.

“Charlotte offers a best-in-class blend of resources, talent and accessibility, all of which are critical as we look to quickly grow our operations,” says Infinisource CEO Gary Trainor, former division president at both ADP and First Data.

In addition to the corporate relocation, Infinisource will launch a new division dedicated to SaaS-based Human Capital Management technology, which will help employers manage their payroll, HR, benefits administration, talent management, time and attendance, and compliance from a single cloud-deployed platform.

Chris Schaaf and Jim Thorp from Jones Lang LaSalle are representing Infinisource in lease negotiations.

The Charlotte Chamber would like to thank Governor Beverly Perdue, N.C. Department of Commerce, and NC Community Colleges for their assistance and support to this important project.

Information on job opportunities at Infinisource Holdings can be found at: www.infinisource.net.

Charlotte Business Journal, December 12, 2011

Washington sent Charlotte Area Transit System two pieces of good news Monday, starting with an $18 million federal grant will be used to lengthen station platforms and add power capacity for three-car trains along the 10-mile route between Pineville and uptown.

The office of U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) announced the transportation department grant. CATS should receive the money in the next month or two, Hagan spokeswoman Sadie Weiner says. The money will be used to lengthen station platforms and add power capacity for three-car trains along the 10-mile route between Pineville and uptown.

CATS spokesman Olaf Kinard says the agency hopes to complete work on the platforms and power substations by 2015, two years before the planned opening of the $1.1 billion, 9.4-mile light-rail extension to UNC Charlotte. That section of the line is already being designed with capacity for three-car trains.

Currently, the Lynx line lacks the capacity for three-car trains. The expanded capacity will initially be used for special events, when ridership is especially heavy, CATS says. When the expansion to UNCC is completed, three-car trains are expected to run all along the corridor.

The transit agency will match the federal grant with an investment of $4 million. CATS won’t have to buy additional train cars to support the first expansion, Kinard says.

“Charlotte and North Carolina continue to lead the way in the future of transportation,” Hagan said in prepared remarks. “This project will provide a valuable boost to Charlotte’s infrastructure, helping to alleviate transportation concerns during special events and peak commuting hours. It will also drive economic development in the region. Investments in infrastructure are directly linked to job creation, which continues to be my number one priority.”

The $463 million Lynx line opened in 2007.

In addition to the grant, the Federal Transit Administration pushed the UNCC light-rail project, known as the Blue Line Extension, farther down the track by granting approval to begin the final phase of design. That milestone puts CATS in position to start right-of-way acquisition, begin final construction planning, complete cost estimates and secure a commitment from the federal government to pay half of the estimated $1.1 billion price tag. Each of those steps required the so-called record of decision, which the FTA issued Monday.

“It moves us another step forward,” Kinard says

Charlotte Business Journal, December 6, 2011

North Carolina’s economy will grow 1.7 percent in 2012 from a gain of 1.3 percent this year, according   to UNC Charlotte.

Eleven of the state’s 15 economic sectors are set for growth next year, he says. The sectors with the strongest prospects are business and professional services, with a projected real increase of 5.4 percent; finance, insurance and real estate, up 3.8 percent; wholesale trade, up 2.6 percent; information, with a 2.1 percent gain; and transportation, warehousing and utilities, up 2.1 percent.

Connaughton expects the state to gain 38,000 net jobs in 2012, up from a projected gain of 22,500 in 2011. The sectors likely to gain the most jobs are hospitality and leisure services, government and education and health services.

“By the end of 2012, North Carolina is expected to have replaced only 60,500 of the 323,000 jobs lost during the recession,” Connaughton says. “At this pace, it will take another decade to gain back all the jobs lost during 2008 and 2009. At the national level, jobs are the story, yet in North Carolina, our anemic job growth seems to be invisible — despite the fact that the state is in worse shape than the U.S.”

Home been on the market too long? This could be a great time to lower the price or change your strategy.

If your property has been sitting on the market for months, most buyers and their agents will see it as stale or overpriced and disregard it — no matter how great it is or how light the competition currently is.

In that scenario, it’s time to take action, and the year-end holidays can be a golden opportunity to shift course. Making a dramatic price reduction or overcoming some major obstacle that has been preventing the sale might be just the right thing to do this time of year. If you had lower offers early on but you weren’t ready to accept them, or you keep hearing that there are issues with the way your property shows, this could be your chance to show the market you’re listening and serious about selling. The motivated buyers will notice you and take a look.

Don’t want to be bothered during the holidays? List your property in January.

Admittedly, the thought of keeping the house clean, holding open houses, and vacating to accommodate last-minute showings during the holidays is a deal killer for some. If so, consider listing your property after New Year’s Day.

Traditionally, we don’t see much inventory coming on the market in January. It’s cold in most places, and many sellers prefer to wait until the spring, a more conventional time to sell. As a result, we don’t see much inventory in January. And yet, each January my phone rings with new buyers wanting to get into the market. Or I’ll hear from on-the-fence buyers who may have lost interest earlier in the year and are now suddenly motivated again.

There’s something about the beginning of a new year that galvanizes people. The motivation to buy could be due to year-end tax planning, with buyers seeing how much they owe and how owning a home could help. It could be because of New Year’s resolutions to finally stop spending money on rentals and invest in property. Maybe a rich relative gave them money for a down payment (wouldn’t that be nice?).

Whatever the motivation, for sellers it means one thing: There can be an increase in demand at a time when inventory is traditionally low — resulting in less competition from other sellers. If you’re motivated to sell your home, you’ll have an even more “captive” audience in January.