Rivian has hired about 1,000 people in central Illinois in the last three months. As of Monday, the company said it has 3,060 workers at its plant in Normal, easily making the company McLean County's third largest employer, ahead of Country Financial and behind Illinois State University and State Farm.
If the automaker's previously announced plans for continued expansion to 4,000 to 5,000 by the end of 2022 come true, Rivian would pass ISU on the employment meter sometime next year. All of that hiring has happened since 2017 when the company bought the mothballed Mitsubishi plant.
The pace of hiring remains fast: Rivian added 80 workers in the last week and 500 in the last month.
The company declined to say more, citing federal rules covering its SEC filing for an initial public offering of stock, expected to happen late this year.
Rivian now has 8,762 workers nationwide. About 35% of its employees work in Normal. By comparison, about 25% of State Farm's corporate workforce is based in Bloomington-Normal — about 14,000 in the Twin Cities and 55,000 company- wide, confirmed State Farm.
