WINTERSVILLE - After just three months, Heavy Duty Industrial Services has surpassed its original employment projections for the year.
Heavy Duty's Cory Jursik said they'd expected to have "40 employees, 50 maximum, by the end of the year, full time, out of this office by the end of the year" at the Wintersville location on Kragel Road.
"But we're already up to 67 employees, most of them locals," he said. "We have 28 from Jefferson County alone. The rest are scattered - we have some from Harrison County, too, and a few from West Virginia and (western) Pennsylvania."
The difference maker, he said, is that the drilling industry is gaining ground much faster than had been expected.
"When we came here in the beginning of the year, there were very low numbers for predicted drilling," he said. "But now, as more and more companies get the necessary permits, things have opened up more. Our need for drivers, laborers and supervisors has gone up dramatically. (We need) more employees to keep up with the work."
Jursik said the surge in demand pushed the company to rethink its job projections.
"We've set some goals to reach 100-plus employees out of this office by the end of the year," he said. "I really don't think it will be that hard to get to, to be honest. There's a lot of new companies coming into the area."
Heavy Duty is a service company for the drilling industry, taking on tasks such as hauling water and cleaning everything from the drilling rigs to frack tanks.
"The steel industry's decline hurt people and job creation, but there are a lot of qualified, very good workers here in Jefferson County and the area in general. It's helped us gain work," he said. "
Heavy Duty is headquartered in Youngstown.
