© 2024 WNIJ and WNIU
Northern Public Radio
801 N 1st St.
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-9000
Northern Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

LaSalle County Wants You To "Just Hire One"

Susan Stephens
/
WNIJ

LaSalle County business leaders are looking to a simple idea with a great slogan to turn their economy around.

  “Just Hire One” is an effort by the county’s five Chambers of Commerce, plus a number of affiliated organizations. They’re asking the county’s 26-hundred employers to take on one more employee than they had planned. Boyd Palmer is the executive director of theOttawa Chamber of Commerceand Industry. He says they hope the businesses hire someone who is currently unemployed.

That individual would then become part of a collective pool of new hires that would contribute to bringing down LaSalle County’s unemployment rate.

Palmer says for every 500 new hires,  LaSalle County’s unemployment rate would drop by a percentage point. He says he and his “Just Hire One” partners can help potential employers with job training, information about tax credits, and a job fair on February 20th at the Ottawa South Towne Mall.

The idea for “Just Hire One” comes from a Pennsylvania man’s successful “Hire Just One” campaign: it also inspired a small business hiring incentive plan that has been introduced in Congress.        

Susan is an award-winning reporter/writer at her favorite radio station. She's also WNIJ's Perspectives editor, Under Rocks contributor, and local host of All Things Considered.