BLUE SPRINGS - The 2 million-square-foot Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi plant has plenty of room to spare for the 75 people who are employed there now.

In a few short months, they'll get a little more company as more workers are hired to get the facility up and running by next fall.

Since Toyota announced two weeks ago that it was accepting applications for about 1,350 hourly production and skilled maintenance jobs at the plant, more than 10,000 have poured in from across the country.

Ted Killough, 46, said he wouldn't mind moving from the Midwest to the Deep South.

"I've got friends in the business who have worked for other companies like GM and Ford who say an auto job is a good one to have," said Killough, who works for a manufacturer in Indiana.

"I've got experience with what Toyota is looking for, so maybe I'll have a chance. We'll see. I still have a job here, but I'm willing to do something different."

The production and maintenance jobs pay between $15 and $25 an hour at Toyota Mississippi. The pay range "sounds good" to Killough, who said that a lower cost of living in Mississippi also would be a plus.

Killough, however, will have to stand out from the thousands of others hoping to catch Toyota's eye.

That so many out-of-state people are applying for the jobs has raised some concerns, but state and local officials are confident that Toyota will hire as many Mississippians as possible.

"I have no doubt that Toyota is committed to hiring local folks, or they wouldn't be here," said Randy Kelley, executive director of Three Rivers Planning and Development District in Pontotoc.

"The labor market information we gave them came from a 30-mile and 60-mile radius of the plant and if they didn't like what they saw, they wouldn't have come here."

About a third of the work force in Northeast Mississippi is tied to manufacturing, which state and local leaders insist provides a good pool of workers from which Toyota can choose.

But the automaker isn't required to hire a specific number of "local" workers.

"There are no percentages or specifics outlined in the memorandum of understanding per se, but the intent is that Mississippians would be the primary pool for the work force," said Melissa Medley of the Mississippi Development Authority.

"As far as local applicants, Toyota's decision to come to Mississippi was based in large part on their observation of the quality of the local work force. It would stand to reason that they would want to have this work force among the ranks of their team members."

The MOU does, however, say that Toyota must have at least 1,500 workers at the facility.

David Copenhaver, vice president of administration for Toyota Mississippi, said most of the production hiring won't happen until the first quarter of next year. When the plant is fully operational a year later, it's expected to have about 2,000 employees.

And Copenhaver said the company's goal, while not specific, is to have the work force reflect the area as much as possible.

"From a practical standpoint, we want most of the hiring for the production and maintenance from the local area," he said.

Typically, the work force will be within an hour's drive from the plant, he added.

Some jobs, however, will be filled by other people with more experience. For example, several workers from other Toyota facilities have transferred to work at the Blue Springs plant.

"But hiring local as much as possible is our goal," Copenhaver said.

No raiding of businesses

With an unemployment rate in July of 13.4 percent in the 16 counties that make up Northeast Mississippi, Toyota should have little trouble finding applicants. In fact, the region has been battling double-digit jobless rates for 16 straight months.

While Toyota will hire 2,000 people, its suppliers are expected to hire another 2,000. With some of those workers expected to come from other industries and businesses, the employment picture will improve, said Todd Beadles, vice president of work force development and training at the Community Development Foundation in Tupelo.

"Four thousand jobs speaks for itself," he said. "It obviously will have an impact on the unemployment rate, which is historically high for our region."

Three years ago, when Toyota initially said it was opening the Blue Springs plant, some companies in the region feared that they would be targeted by the automaker.

Because Toyota was looking for skilled maintenance and tool-and-dye workers and because the demand was greater than the supply, there was a fear in some quarters that Toyota would "raid" their qualifed-worker pool.

As it turned out, that wasn't the case. And it won't be the case this time, either, Beadles said.

"I heard from a lot of companies in 2007 who had those concerns," he said. "There were also concerns about the pay and benefits package that Toyota would offer. But to be honest, that convinced a lot of companies to look at what they were doing and what they were offering and allowed them to mitigate some of the issues they might have had."

The average manufacturing wage in Northeast Mississippi is about $13 an hour. Toyota's base pay for production and skilled maintenance workers starts at $15. So, Toyota hasn't come in, disrupting the pay scale and forcing wages higher.

And that was never Toyota's intention, Beadles said.

"What Toyota is paying is in line with what's being offered already," he said.

Ken Pruett, president of the Mississippi Furniture Association, said Toyota's arrival could be a boon for all manufacturers, including the furniture industry, which has established deep roots in the region.

"We know that they'll be attracting and going after the best of the best, and that will open up opportunities," Pruett said.

"Once Toyota and its suppliers get through hiring who they want, that'll leave some openings for fewer people to fill. And companies will be willing to pay a little more to keep their highly skilled workers. I think Toyota will end up pushing the pay scales up a little for everybody, so it's a win-win situation."

Contact Dennis Seid at (662) 678-1578 or dennis.seid@djournal.com.