More than 98 percent of the thousands of workers who will have jobs at the Madison County Nissan plant will come from within Mississippi.

Can job-seekers in the Natchez area expect to be among them?

Already, some former employees at International Paper’s Natchez mill have found employment there. And Johnson Maintenance of Natchez takes crews to the plant and back for work days.

True, the numbers from Natchez still remain small as compared to the employees found in the cities and counties closer to the plant, which opened on May 27 and eventually will manufacture the Quest, Pathfinder Armada, Titan truck, Altima and an Infinity SUV yet to be named.

Once up to full speed, the plant will employ 5,300 people and will produce nearly half a million vehicles a year.

Figures released by the Goodman Group indicate the plant potentially could directly and indirectly create more than 30,000 jobs by 2010.

Wendy Polk, spokeswoman for plant in Mississippi, said interviews continue and opportunities still exist for more Mississippians to come aboard at the plant located near Canton.

&uot;We’re really at just our halfway point,&uot; she said. &uot;We encourage people to apply.&uot;

Polk, herself a Mississippian, said the plant has been a source of much excitement as it begins the business of making the popular Nissan models. &uot;We interview each day and we hire each week,&uot; she said. &uot;We have approximately 2,000 more jobs to fill.&uot;

Anyone interested in applying for a position at Nissan should contact a local Workforce Investment Center or the Mississippi Employment Security Commission.

&uot;We have the applications,&uot; said Peggy Ballard, manager of the Natchez office of the Employment Security Commission. &uot;People can come in and fill them out, and we will send them on to Nissan.&uot;

During the initial flurry of interest in the Nissan jobs, the Natchez office of the MESC had many job-seekers come to fill out applications for the company, Ballard said. That has slacked off some, but she expects numbers to increase again by mid summer when IP closes.

In the first set of applications, Nissan sent hire lists, letting the Natchez office know about locals who landed jobs. Ballard said she has not seen such a list recently and does not know of any new success from the area.

&uot;We did not have an extremely large number, but we did see some people get jobs there,&uot; Ballard said.