Home Depot to fill 1,500 seasonal jobs in Atlanta

By Joel Provano

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Home Depot will hire more than 1,500 employees  in metro Atlanta -- and 70,000 nationwide -- for seasonal jobs during the busy spring season, the Cobb County-based retailer announced Thursday.

Spokesman Stephen Holmes said the jobs would be distributed throughout Home Depot's 62 metro Atlanta locations and would depend on individual stores' needs. He declined to release a pay range for the jobs but said the scale would vary based on location, position and the experience level of the applicant.

The jobs include inside sales associates, lot attendants, cashiers and home and garden associates, among others, Holmes said.

Seasonal jobs typically last 120 days, he said, although a press release from the company noted that seasonal jobs often lead to full-time positions.

Job seekers can begin applying immediately online, although they can also apply in person at individual stores, Holmes said.

Holmes said the 70,000 figure is roughly the same number Home Depot hired last year. "Spring is always a busy selling season, so the hiring numbers don't fluctuate significantly from year to year," he said.

Home Depot in November announced third-quarter earnings of $934 million, a 12 percent increase over $834 million it made in the same quarter of 2010. Sales for the quarter totaled $17.3 billion, a 4.4 percent increase over the third quarter of 2010.

Also in November, the retailer announced that it plans to open a new customer support call center this year in Cobb County, bringing in 700 jobs.

The facility will be based in the Chastain Meadows commercial office park in Kennesaw north of the Town Center mall. It is scheduled to be operational by late this year and will open with about 400 jobs and expand to 700 jobs by 2015.

The average salary for customer service representatives, who will provide support for the company's online retail operations, will be in the mid-$30,000s range, said Blair Lewis, a senior official with the state’s Economic Development Department.

Staff writer Janel Davis contributed to this article.