Newton, Mass. — Despite the economy, low industrial output and the possibility of rising energy prices, wholesale distributors are looking for help in IT, sales, management and marketing. According to reports, job seekers do not look in the "hidden sector" of distribution so there are distributors, large and small, with jobs that remain unfilled.

Industrial Distribution's 55th Annual Survey of Distributor Operations shows that 62 percent of respondents plan to employ more salespeople by 2003 than they did in 2001. "Finding more qualified people" was the fourth most-cited concern of distributors, according to the survey. Keeping qualified employees ranked sixth.

Distributors like W.W. Grainger, Inc., based in Lake Forest, Ill., and Airgas, Inc. of Radnor, Pa., list employment openings on their Web sites ranging from entry-level to management positions in many locations around the country. Many of those positions are for skilled and experienced people and take longer to fill, according to government reports on employment.

Businesses began adding workers in February for the first time in seven months — though mainly in unskilled job areas — and unemployment dropped to 5.5 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

One company hiring IT employees is Interline Brands, an industrial distributor formed by the merger of two companies last year. According to CFO William Sanford, the increase in IT needs requires that more qualified people come on board.

"With six e-commerce sites and seven customer segments, our information technology becomes more critical to our operation," Sanford said. "There are some positions available that companies are always looking to fill."

Distribution industry analyst Jeffery Germanotta, of William Blair & Co. in Chicago, notes that the industry is still in a recovery stage and there will not be as many jobs available as in the boom years of the 1990s. However, he agrees that those jobs that are available require specialists in distribution sales or technologies.