20,000 Apply for Less Than 1000 Jobs At Alabama Hyundai Plant

It should not come as a surprise with unemployment over 8% that good paying jobs in manufacturing are harder than ever to land.

At the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama more than 20,000 people have applied for one of the 877 job openings.

The surge of people applying may seem unusual, but it's not.

Take a look:

• Last summer Ford had more than 18,000 people apply for one of 1,800 jobs at the retooled Louisville plant. That plant will open and start building the Edge SUV in mid-June. 
• In 2011, more than 41,000 applied for one of the 1,300 positions at the new Toyota plant in Tupelo, Mississippi.
• In 2009, more than 65,000 applied for one of the 2,700 jobs at the new Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, TN. Since opening, that plant has added shifts and is currently hiring another 820 workers.

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GM sales down 30 percent for the year

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Toyota sales in December rose to 187,860 from 141,949 a year earlier. For all of 2009, sales fell to 1.8 million from 2.2 million in 2008. Lexus sales were down 17 percent for the year.

Honda sold 1.15 million vehicles in 2009, down from 1.42 in 2008.

For Detroit, the numbers were worse. General Motors sales were down 30 percent for the year. Ford was off 15 percent. Chrysler sales plunged 36 percent and the company sold fewer than 1 million vehicles for the first time since 1962.

Subaru, Kia and Hyundai were the only automakers to report sales gains in 2009. Each set new sales records.