A few months ago, a Kia Motors official told LaGrange Daily News that the company might reopen its job application process, possibly this fall. The company took 43,000 online applications in 2007 and hasn’t accepted any more since.

This week, KMMG leader Randy Jackson sounded even more positive on the subject. In an interview with the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Jackson said “it makes sense” to take new applications.

It sure does.

Many well-qualified workers, right here in Troup County, have lost jobs due to layoffs and plant shutdowns since Kia closed its applicant pool. Milliken and Interface, among others, have had significant workforce reductions. The Troup County jobless rate is above 14 percent and LaGrange’s is even higher.

Not all those unemployed would qualify for Kia jobs, but many would make superb employees. Reopening applications would be a win-win, good for Kia and good for experienced manufacturing employees who already live here and need jobs.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, not surprisingly, endorsed the idea of reopening the application pool. Some 280,000 Georgians are looking for work, thousands of whom weren’t in that situation two years ago.

“As a result, you will have people with higher skills and more qualified than what you might have had a couple of years ago,” Thurmond said.

The opening of the Kia plant in West Point, which once seemed a long way off, is now just around the corner. Already more than 1,100 workers have been hired and hundreds more are involved in the construction process.

Kia will have about 1,250 workers by the time production begins in November. The company will then hire an additional 1,250 for a second production shift that will be opened in mid-2010.

There would be plenty of competition, of course, and no guarantee that jobs would go to local workers. But considering all that Kia has going on, hiring local people should be an attractive prospect, eliminating several of the complications associated with transition, relocation and assimilation of new workers. And considering that local governments and the citizens they represent have moved heaven and earth, not to mention provided costly incentives, to welcome Kia, a focus on hiring locally would be an appropriate way to honor and enhance the already strong relationship.

Whatever happens, Troup County is the only county in the state and one of a handful in the nation where this discussion would make sense. In the midst of recession, a major automotive company and its multiple suppliers are hiring.

On Labor Day - or any day - that’s a good thing.