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VXI to add more jobs at its Youngstown site
YOUNGSTOWN
VXI Global Solutions LLC announced it will add 200 new customer-service positions in Youngstown, including 25 Spanish bilingual employees, as its partner Western Union expands its lines of business here.
In November, the Los Angeles-based company announced a new partnership with Western Union, marking the first time the two companies have teamed up in the United States. That move added 200 jobs, and representatives touted its potential to bring hundreds more in the coming months.
With Monday’s announcement, VXI is set to employ about 1,100 at its Youngstown call center, which has operated for more than four years.
Most of the new, full-time positions will support Western Union’s mortgage-acceleration and payment-processing programs, said Pam Hall, senior human-resources manager for VXI. They primarily will serve U.S. businesses, though some will support international money transfers.
Stacey Matthew, managing director of talent acquisition, said VXI’s Youngstown location was chosen because of the “quality of the employee pool.”
“The new positions will provide sales and service needs for a leading money-transfer provider,” Matthew said. “We will hire 200 by the end of June, but the hiring will continue beyond that.”
Of the 200 new positions, 25 will go to applicants who are bilingual in Spanish and English.
“We’re really excited to look at our Spanish-speaking community locally with the addition of 25 bilingual associates here,” Hall said.
Some hiring already has begun at 20 Federal Place on West Federal Street downtown.
VXI has been expanding in Youngstown since the company first established offices in the city-owned building in 2009. Back then, it only boasted a staff of 100.
VXI now occupies the building’s fourth and fifth floors, a portion of the second floor and a suite on the ground floor. For now, the company has “the ability to house all 200” employees, but “we’re at capacity,” Hall said.
“Their continued investment has really helped solidify that 20 Federal Place building, and they’ve really become the anchor of that project,” said Mayor John A. McNally.
The city gained control of the Federal Street building in 2004, according to the Mahoning County auditor’s website. At that time, occupancy was below 10 percent, but with structural and cosmetic investments from the city, the occupancy rate has risen significantly.
McNally said he hopes to soon relieve the city of its “landlord obligations,” and the city is finalizing requests for proposals, which he plans to distribute to potential buyers by the end of the week.