Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing is hosting a career fair Thursday to encourage people to apply for more than 500 new jobs it is filling as part of a $200 million expansion.
The fair will be at the plant at 6500 N.W. 27th St., from 4-7 p.m.
The company, which is a subsidiary of Japan-based Kawasaki Heavy Industries, is increasing its capacity to assemble Jet Skis, ATVs and other small vehicles, as well as adding capacity to assembly, paint and welding lines.
Assemblers with no experience will start at $18.10 an hour, with higher pay for skilled positions, including welders, tool and die machinists, office positions, engineers, purchasing agents, production planning specialists and systems administrators. The company is offering $3,000 hiring bonuses for welders.
A rail car, ATVs, Jet Skis and other products the company makes will be on display at the event.
Kawasaki has been in Lincoln since 1974, when it opened its only North American manufacturing plant. However, most of its investment in the plant over the past couple of decades has been to support its growing rail car division, as well as its new aerospace division, which opened in Lincoln in 2017.
Kawasaki is Lincoln's largest manufacturing operation, with more than 2.4 million square feet of space at Northwest 27th Street and U.S. 34. It also is one of the city's largest private employers, with more than 2,400 employees.
The Metro authority's safety commission ordered the withdrawal of the entire 7000-series line of trains, which are made in Kawasaki's Lincoln …
A Kawasaki employee applies decals to a utility vehicle on the Lincoln plant's assembly line in July. Like many other businesses in the state, Kawasaki's plans to expand are largely dependent on finding more people to fill available jobs.