Huntsville today hangs out the "help wanted" sign —- in Atlanta.

A job expo in Midtown is aimed at luring talent to the northeast corner of Alabama to fill thousands of openings in an economy bolstered by government spending on aeronautics, the military and space.

About 30 businesses will be in recruiting mode at the Atlanta Marriott Suites Midtown between 2 and 7 p.m., part of the "Huntsville on the Road 2008 Career Expo."

Among the companies looking to hire in Atlanta are Boeing, Westar Aerospace & Defense Group and Dynetics Inc., as well as NASA, according to the Chamber of Commerce for Huntsville and Madison County.

About 10,000 new jobs must be filled by 2012, the chamber said.

From just over 200 miles away, Huntsville recruiters view Atlanta as a large and deep pool for talent, spawning engineers and techies by the thousands each year.

"Atlanta is a great target for Huntsville," proclaimed a release from the public relations firm for the chamber.

Their chamber counterparts in Atlanta might be forgiven for having the uncomfortable feeling, as the saying goes, of being hoist on their own petard.

Huntsville officials say their companies can dangle "quality of life advantages," low mortgages and a lower-than-average cost of living —- the kind of enticements that Atlanta recruiters used for decades.

Moreover, Huntsville's news release draws a not-too-subtle comparison between the economies of the two regions. "As the weak economy strikes Atlanta's job and housing markets, an economic boom awaits residents just across the border."

Although the national economy has slowed, both areas retain better-than-average economic profiles. Metro Atlanta's unemployment rate is a modest 4.4 percent, but metropolitan Huntsville is an ever-lower 3.2 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A spokeswoman for the Atlanta chamber did not return phone calls.