Neb student loan company Nelnet to fill 300 jobs

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Student loan company Nelnet has announced it will seek to fill more than 300 jobs in Lincoln over the next three months.

The company made the announcement Thursday during its annual shareholders' meeting, the Lincoln Journal Star reported (http://bit.ly/170889J) Friday. Nelnet President Jeff Noordhoek said the company wants to fill 311 positions.

"We are in an absolute rapid growth, rapid hiring mode," he said.

The company employed about 700 people in Lincoln at the end of 2009, after cutting some 800 jobs during the height of the recession. By the end of 2012, it had nearly doubled its local employment numbers to 1,350.

Nelnet spokesman Ben Kiser said nearly all of the company's new openings come from its growth in the federal student loan servicing business.

Nelnet's share of federal student loan servicing went from 16 percent in the 2011-12 academic year to 30 percent in 2012-13, company officials said.

The company said it also has been growing its fee-based businesses, including enrollment services and tuition processing.

Nelnet is using every "nook and cranny of space" to accommodate the new employees, Kiser said. The company is remodeling space on the sixth floor of its corporate headquarters in Lincoln that will provide room for about 200 of the new employees.

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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com