B/CS Economic Outlook Conference includes big announcement on new jobs

An area business is announcing large growth in jobs.

Nift plans to have 1,000 employees in College Station by the end of the year.

The Boston-based company expanded to College Station 2018.

Area business leaders heard the big announcement Wednesday morning at the Bryan College Station Chamber of Commerce's Economic Outlook Conference.

"We're very thankful for Nift who joined us in 2018 in the Brazos Valley they estimated that they'd hire about 400 people," said Matt Prochaska with the Brazos Valley Economic Development Corporation.

Prochaska said this business is supporting other local businesses.

"The other thing that I love about Nift is they're taking this whole idea of all of the internet shopping that's happening and they're really encouraging those to come back to local retailers. So getting people in the doors of the local retailers is really key to their whole success and it's working," said Prochaska.

The company already has a large workforce of Aggie and Blinn college students.

"We're growing, growing, really really fast and how I best describe Nift is it's basically like this customer sharing network where businesses can receive new customers that are really right around the corner," said Michael Garland, Nift Vice President.

Garland said some of their jobs pay more than $27 an hour.

An educated workforce is a big reason for their expansion.

"I've had the opportunity to manage in different parts of the United States. But I found that the people here are just fantastic and it's a credit a lot to Texas A&M and Blinn," Garland said.

"There are about 640 businesses that could benefit from our product and our goal is to expand and to drive awareness to gather great talent within the local area," Garland said.

Nift plans to have those new positions filled by the end of the year.

Other big things at the Economic Outlook Conference included discussions on all the job growth in Texas and historic low unemployment. In the B/CS area, the unemployment rate still stands at 2.7%.