CNBC on 3-25-2009

I'm Carmen Wong Ulrich, and on The Money tonight, where the jobs are. His company was praised by President Obama last night, so we tracked down the CEO who tells us why he's hopeful enough to hire and how you can get one of his jobs. How one couple's credit got crunched again and again. Find out how you can navigate today's rough credit landscape. And airlines are feeling the pain, so make it your gain. Whether you're flying domestic or around the globe. We'll show you how to land the best deal. And toxic assets— believe it or not, you can invest in them. We'll give you the real deal on that one. We've got a great money desk working for you tonight. Tyler Matheson, managing editor here at CNBC, and Ron Carson, founder of Carson Wealth Management Group and number 2 on Barron's list of the top independent financial advisors. Together, we're ready to roll up our sleeves and, you know what, help you make the most of your money. First up, last night, President Obama's talking about his stimulus plan. He told a story that grabbed our attention, a story about a company that's putting folks back to work.

This plan's already saved the jobs of teachers and police officers. It's creating construction jobs to rebuild roads and bridges. And yesterday, I met with a man whose company is reopening a factory outside of Pittsburgh that's Rehiring workers to build some of the most energy-efficient windows in the world.

So we tracked down the CEO of the company the President mentioned, and we'd like to welcome Kevin Surace of Serious Materials. Welcome, Kevin. Now—

Thank you, Carmen.

Tell us, though, Kevin, how are you able to hire when so, so many employers aren't right now?

Well, believe it or not, we are so focused on energy efficiency, and this Recovery Act is so focused on energy efficiency, that there's some $30 to $40 billion in there that we We believe is going to flow in the right direction, and a lot of that we can see is going to flow to us very, very quickly.

All right, now how many jobs are we talking about here? What kind of jobs? I know you have something to do with the Illinois sit-in.

Yes, absolutely. So in Pennsylvania, we can rehire about 150 to 200 workers ultimately at that plant, which we're very excited about. And for every worker we rehire in Pennsylvania and Chicago, which I'll touch on in a second, there's another 2 that that are hired by our partners to install these high— what's called high R-value windows. In Chicago, we can hold almost 600 people at that plant at full capacity, and we want to ramp that Chicago plant starting in about a month as quickly as we can to capacity. The demand is high. We're very excited about it, and that can create 1,600, 1,700, 1,800 jobs ultimately around that community.

Now, who are you hiring in terms of hiring? These are not just the contractors. This is across the board, right?

That's right. I mean, we've got manufacturing jobs, we've got skilled labor, we've got unskilled labor, we've got union labor in Chicago. Then there's installers out there in the field, we've got management. So it's really across the board. And, and, you know, it's a little bit of that, uh, you know, if you build it, they will come, right? And so we have gotten out in front of the charge, out in front of the crowd here, recognizing how much is in the stimulus package and how much we can ultimately take advantage of and how much we can save our consumers and our commercial customers energy.

Kevin, I got to ask you though, how— what did it feel like, how did it feel to get a personal shout-out from the President of the country?

Well, it's an— I mean, we're honored, we're tickled, and we're shocked, right? I don't know how else to describe it. You know, what's great is that this administration is so focused on getting some money back to work, getting people back to work, and also saving energy at the same time. And if we can combine those 2 or 3 things at the same time, everybody wins. Our customers The consumers win, your viewers win, and there are jobs out there. But it's going to take companies like ours that are looking forward and building this capacity because we see an absolute onslaught of orders. And in fact, even right now, we're having record years and record quarters every quarter. So it couldn't be better.

That is really, really great to hear, Kevin. By the way, love Pittsburgh like crazy. I can't wait to see you out there. Thank you so much for joining us and good luck. Please keep us posted. You know, Tyler, this— it's just— it makes you feel happy.

It makes you feel good.

There's something that makes you feel good.

Here's a real-life story of where the stimulus money is going to go. I think Kevin points to another thing. I think we in the media on the coasts tend to overdramatize what's going on across the whole country. And I don't mean to minimize the pain that's being felt in, in many parts of the country whatsoever. But when you talk to folks in towns like Pittsburgh, where they didn't have the high highs of the economic boom—

Right.

They're not having the low lows either. And so things are probably better, relatively speaking, there, and they feel a lot better than they do here on the coast, where we have seen sort of the epicenter Which is really dramatic too, because, you know, Pittsburgh being the old steel town and such, you know, it had it really—

it had tough— it had its tough times. It's built itself up out of it, so we can all learn from that. Now, Ron, you have job openings yourself. You're like, this is, this is a time to hire.

We do, Carmen. And to your point, Tyler, I mean, Omaha didn't experience a boom and bust. I mean, we're feeling the pain definitely in the Midwest, but we're hiring. I mean, we're hiring financial advisors, we're hiring tech people. We're hiring money managers, and it's— and there's certain— this creative destructive process that we're going through in our economy right now is creating tremendous opportunity. And really, that's a message for the consumer out there, is reinvest in yourself because there is a lot of opportunity and we are going to recover from this.

Yeah, and I love that Kevin pointed out, I mean, listen, that he creates one job that creates 2, that creates 3, and this is a whole new industry. It's really fascinating. Now, if you're a business owner looking to hire, we want to hear from you. So call us, email us, or text us. With your story. Now, next up, the market, the economy. Stocks have jumped by double digits this month. Interesting.