Job Creation and Investment: Centene, New York Blower, Big Ass Fans

If you’re a fan of fans, this week’s roundup of job creation, investment and site location announcements is for you:

In Kentucky, New York Blower Co. will locate a new manufacturing facility in Grayson County, creating 125 new, full-time jobs. The Chicago-based company, which makes premium-quality, engineered fans and blowers for the industrial marketplace, plans to purchase an existing facility and will invest $4.8 million as part of the project. READ THE FULL ARTICLE…

Attracting Boomers: Retiring Americans Flock to Lower Cost, Less Crowded Regions

As more Americans from the Baby Boom generation retire and look for the perfect place to spend their golden years, what cities are catching their attention? A high percentage of boomers are choosing to move to lower cost, less crowded regions over urban areas. READ THE FULL ARTICLE…

Making Things: Manufacturing Revival Builds Jobs

Where manufacturing once dragged down job creation it is now helping to propel it in many communities such as Seattle, a convergence of in-demand industry segments such as energy and aerospace combined with technology infrastructure and a base of workers with the advanced skills needed for the increasingly complex and sophisticated manufacturing processes.

FIND OUT the top 10 markets for manufacturing growth…. READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Next Silicon Valley: Emerging Markets for Tech Jobs

Since last week’s news of Facebook going public, Silicon Valley has been back in the headlines once again, solidifying its image as the epicenter of tech jobs. For the most part, it still is — and for good reason. The Valley continues to launch some of the nation’s most innovative up-and-coming tech firms. It also creates the highest proportion of tech jobs of any U.S. region — more than four times the national average.

But it’s not the only market for science- and technology-related employment; nor is it the fastest growing one. READ THE FULL ARTICLE…

Broadband: Linking Connectivity to Entrepreneurial Growth

It’s not exactly saying “Welcome, Nerds”  but an initiative inChattanooga, TN, is  at the crossroads of technology and quality of place as a strategy to attract entrepreneurs.

Though it is a metro region with just around 515,000 people, Chattanooga is thinking big in terms of innovation and knowledge companies, thanks to the nation’s first gigabit-per-second fiber optic network, installed by the municipally owned EPB utility and available to 150,000 homes and businesses in a 600-square-mile area.

As demographer Joel Kotkin notes in the 2012 Best Cities for Job Growth “new telecommunications technology serves to even the playing field for companies in smaller cities.”

It’s a strategy that is finding traction in a number of places. READ THE FULL ARTICLE…

Building Back Manufacturing: Regional Clusters, Specialized Sectors Key to Growth

Manufacturing may be taking slow, tentative steps back into the U.S. market, but those baby steps are starting to yield big returns for places like Athens, Ga., which recently landed 1,400 jobs from a major Caterpillar plant coming back from Japan. What’s the best strategy for states, regions and cities looking to build upon that momentum?

Developing regional clusters of highly specialized companies, especially those focused on machinery, composite materials, auto production and aerospace, is key… READ THE FULL ARTICLE