Hundreds of people applied for job on Friday and Saturday with a company under construction near Picayune’s Industrial Park.

Applications were available at city hall. More than 120 applications had already been submitted in less than an hour on the first day, said Ashley Klein with Alliance Consulting Group.

City Operations Manager Harvey Miller said a line had formed outside of city hall Friday consisting of hundreds of people looking for a job. Available positions with the company ranged in pay from $15 an hour for front end loader operators to $25 an hour for DCS operators, according to documentation handed out at the event.

The company was looking to fill about 50 positions that also included secretarial and lab technician positions. Work to be conducted at the plant when it opens in June will be to bring in sand, reduce the water content of the material and ship it to oil drilling companies.

People applying for jobs ranged from students preparing to graduate to local residents who have been looking for a job for some time, or just looking for a better-paying job.

Jamie Spiers said he is about to graduate with a degree in instrumentation and was applying for a job in that field with Alliance Consulting Group on Friday. Spiers said he worked in construction with rebar prior to attending college. Now he hopes to land a job at Alliance to move out of manual labor and also to have a job locally that will save him money on commuting.

“I’d like to save money on gas, as much as gas is,” Spiers said.

Sharon Schmidt lost her job with a real estate agency two years ago. Recently she has been working part time for a law firm, but said that she is making less than unemployment. She was applying for a secretarial job on Friday.

Schmidt said she has applied for a number of jobs online, but has never heard back from any of the companies to which she had applied. She said Friday was the first time in a long time that she was able to fill out an application.

“I think it’s very exciting to have this opportunity,” Schmidt said.

The plant is under construction south of Picayune’s Industrial park, between Picayune and Nicholson. When it opens, the plant will bring in sand, use natural gas as a fuel to heat it and remove excess moisture and then pack it for shipping to oil drilling companies nationwide.