Despite headlines and broadcasts of a faltering economy across the country, news on the economic front in Alabama isn’t all bad.Quite the contrary, it seems, when it comes to economic development.
The state unemployment rate dropped in February from the previous month. And a report just released from the Alabama Development Office shows that 2007 was one for the record books in terms of new and expanding industry announcements.
Capital investments from industrial projects across Alabama topped the $6.8 billion mark, creating 24,244 new jobs. Those numbers also represent 94 new Alabama companies and the expansion of 379 more.
The investments in Alabama are led by the state’s coup when it landed what officials are terming the largest, single industrial project in the country – German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp.
The local area isn’t immune from the good news either. Already in 2008, Talladega County’s Honda announced the addition of the Ridgeline truck to its production lines, representing an investment of $34.5 million, and CMC Metals in Pell City will add 20 new jobs and a $13 million investment in only 18 months after its initial opening.
A veteran’s nursing home, also in Pell City, will add 300 jobs to the local economy and pump another $40 million investment into it.
These kinds of projects generate jobs, and those jobs generate more business to boost the economy.
Granted, consumers are still feeling the pain at the gas pump, battling higher utility bills and other day-to-day costs, but a continued upswing in economic development across the state and across the region can help.
With all the news of gloom hanging over the economy, it is time for a bright spot. And Alabama’s record-breaking economic development effort might just be it.
