ARDMORE, OK - Hundreds of people showed up to a job fair Tuesday in Ardmore hoping to land one of the nearly 200 jobs set to open in the spring. The Flanders Corporation will be adding a brand new facility in Ardmore. Austin Wright has more.

With more than ten locations around the country the Flanders Corporation plans to set up their newest plant in Ardmore. Flanders designs and manufactures air filters, and the company is in a hurry to find almost two hundred new employees.

Ardmore resident Eric Gray is just one of thousands of job seekers frustrated by the slow economy.

"The job market was pretty high, and you had a pretty good chance once graduation of finding a job, and since then now the economy is going down. It's a lot harder," Gray says.

Gray has been looking to put his degree to work for over a year, so when he heard about the job fair put on by Flanders Corporation at the Southern Oklahoma Technology Center, he decided to check it out.

"From what I understand Flanders has that opportunity here, and being from Ardmore it's a great chance to get out and stay close to home and use that degree."

The company, which is one of the leading designers and manufactures of air filters, announced it will open a new branch in Ardmore as early as April, which means Flanders needs to hire for a wide array of positions from administrative support to welders, machinists, and metal workers.

"Initially for our April 1st startup we have 165 positions and the second phase will be our commercial industrial phase. We'll probably have another hundred," Brenda Davis with Flanders Corp. says.

By lunchtime Tuesday almost 400 people had already stopped in, filled out applications, and dropped off resumes.

Brien Thorstenberg with the Ardmore Chamber of Commerce says the new company's arrival could be a sign that the economy is beginning to rebound.

"You have several impacts. You have number one the impact of 166 jobs and the income that brings, and then the suppliers that will be coming to the area to supply the Flanders Corporation," says Thorstenberg.

Over the next year the Flanders Corporation says they will hire more than 300 new employees.

The company will be occupying Best Buy's previous location off Highway 70. They say it will take the next few months before the building is ready to move into.