Manufacturing News
September 29, 2026
September 29, 2026 · Statewide · Story 3 of 6
Slate Auto and Two Orthopedic Suppliers Compete for the Same Warsaw Workers
Slate Auto is headlining the HireKosciusko job fair on October 1st. The company's roughly $400 million Warsaw electric truck plant has hired more than 500 people toward a 2,000-job target, and Paragon Medical and Tecomet, both orthopedic device manufacturers, are exhibiting at the same event.
If you source labor from Kosciusko County, this job fair is a direct read on how tight that market is getting. An EV assembly plant, a surgical implant manufacturer, and a precision machining company are all recruiting from the same room on the same day.
- Impact
- Zimmer Biomet's January 2026 global workforce 'right-sizing' (structured to stay below WARN-notice thresholds) quietly put skilled ortho-device workers (machining, quality, regulatory) into the Kosciusko labor pool just months before this fair, a non-public factor that may be feeding Slate's confidence in hitting 2,000 hires. With Warsaw's population near 15,800, a full Slate ramp represents a greater-than-10% jump in employed residents, and Slate's wage-competitive assembly jobs could accelerate attrition from orthopedic suppliers Paragon Medical and Tecomet, both also recruiting at the same event.
- Watch
- Slate Auto's Q4 2026 production ramp timeline and KEDCO's promised disclosure of the incentive package, wages, and hiring dates.
- For the huddle
If Slate Auto's wage floor pulls skilled machinists and quality techs out of the orthopedic device supply chain, what's our retention plan for the ortho-adjacent talent we compete for in Kosciusko County?
From the brief, September 29, 2026
- AES Indiana's Phase 2 Rate Increase Continues While the SPARK Grant Covers the Seam Upgrade
- Nestle Loses $21 Million Tax Reduction Bid in Anderson
- Slate Auto and Two Orthopedic Suppliers Compete for the Same Warsaw Workers
- Gov. Braun's $175M Federal SPARK Grid Grant
- Purdue-Illinois Semiconductor Workforce Initiative
- Purdue Opens Rittal/Eplan Engineering Labs
Related
- Rolls-Royce's $1B Indianapolis Campus, Indiana's Nuclear MOU for CANDU Reactors, and Cleveland-Cliffs' Burns Harbor Delay: What Indiana Manufacturers Need to Watch
- Nucor's $105 Million Crawfordsville Expansion, SEL's $25 Million West Lafayette Bet, and Indiana's Industrial Property Tax Increase for 2027
- Nucor, Amazon, and Doral Solar Compete for the Indiana Welding Workforce Shortage
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