Up to 500 Cook County correctional officers will be hired

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

With unemployment hovering just under the 11 percent mark in Cook County alone and local government tightening its belt, Sheriff Tom Dart is offering some light on the horizon: a veritable hiring bonanza.

Today Dart’s office announced that as many 500 correctional officers will be hired in the new year. And the pay is decent: roughly $45,000 a year, including health, dental and vision insurance — not to mention a county pension.

The need is clear, according to the sheriff’s office. When four clerical jobs in the sheriff’s department were advertised this fall, the county was swamped with some 14,000 applications.