http://66.225.205.104/SO20091223.mp3
A firm that processes loans for major banks called Zenta, announced it's adding one-thousand new jobs to its Charlotte office in the coming years. WFAE's Simone Orendain has more. North Carolina is giving Zenta up to $8.6 in tax breaks - as long as it hires 1,000 employees and retains the positions over nine years. New York-based Zenta is currently recruiting loan processors and loan underwriters for jobs that pay between $45,000 and $55,000 a year. Zenta CEO Henry Hortenstine says the company picked Charlotte to expand because of the quality and availability of the workforce. "One of the silver linings of the economic turmoil that the whole country and the whole world's been through, and certainly here in Charlotte, is there are a whole lot of very, very talented people out here looking for the kind the opportunities that we have," he says. From October 2008 through this October, more than 11,000 financial services workers were out of a job in the Mecklenburg, Gastonia and Concord metro area. North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue says South Carolina put up a tough fight to try to lure Zenta. But she says her state didn't have to extend more incentives than the job development grant. "This was a different kind of hunt. They were looking for a specific kind of worker in a specific place and the short list was very short. And they chose North Carolina," says Perdue. Hortenstine says the company has around 250 workers at its Charlotte office and employs close to 5,000 worldwide. The 1,000 jobs will be added over five years. Hortenstine says the additional workers will fill space across the street from its South Charlotte office. Zenta will invest $2.2 million in capital and infrastructure expenses related to the expansion.