June 15, 2009

Alabama Receives Award for Record of New Jobs

MONTGOMERY - New and expanding industry announcements earned Alabama a “Silver Shovel” award from Area Development magazine, Governor Bob Riley announced today.

Alabama is one of 11 states being recognized by the publication for “attracting high-value investment projects that will create a significant number of new jobs,” Area Development magazine reports.

“Alabama continues to outperform most states, even during this tough economy. Our growth in personal income ranks among the best in the nation, and just last week economic forecasters predicted Alabama will be among the first states to emerge from this recession. The economic foundation we built over the past few years is helping to sustain our state during this downturn, and it will allow Alabama to come out of it with new jobs and more growth,” Governor Riley said.

To determine the award winners, the editors of Area Development collected information about each state’s top 10 job creation and investment projects initiated in 2008. Only those projects that actually “broke ground,” began an expansion or started hiring were considered.

Among the Alabama projects featured in the magazine are 1,000 announced new jobs at Austal USA’s shipbuilding facility in Mobile, 150 announced new jobs at Keystone Foods’ new facility in Gadsden, and 300 announced new jobs at Brookwood Pharmaceuticals in Birmingham.

Alabama received the award in the category for states with a population under 5 million. Alabama earned the magazine’s Golden Shovel award in 2005.

Moody’s Economy.com predicted last week that Alabama will be among the first states to exit the recession. Personal income grew in Alabama by nearly five percent last year, which ranked the state number 13 in the nation for income growth, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Governor Riley is currently on an overseas economic development mission to attract new jobs, more investment and foreign trade opportunities for the state.

According to Area Development, Alabama’s top 10 economic development projects last year were: