Wisconsin Earns National Recognition for Job Creation

Commerce Secretary Mary Burke holds Wisconsin's Silver Shovel Award from Area Development magazine. Pictured with Burke are Mary Gage, director of the Bureau of Business Finance & Compliance, and Henry Wilde, Business Development division administrator.

This June Wisconsin earned a Silver Shovel award from Area Development magazine (New York) for being among the 10 most successful states in creating new jobs and securing investments in new and expanded facilities.

Under Gov. Jim Doyle's direction, Commerce has worked hard to help businesses create jobs and investment all across Wisconsin. All of you working on business development projects can be proud of this achievement.

To determine the award recipients, Area Development magazine's editors contacted each state and asked for verifiable information about the 10 top job-creation and investment projects that were actually initiated in the state during 2006. Rather than acknowledge announced projects and potential jobs that are slated to occur, the magazine contacted Commerce staff to collect data only on those projects that had actually begun construction or expanded a facility and initiated new hiring.

Each state was then rated based on the following five weighted factors: projects' direct job creation numbers; new jobs per capita; amount of companies' investment; number of new facilities (either new to the state or at new locations within the state); and the number of projects creating high value-added jobs.

Among the projects Wisconsin submitted were Direct Supply and Northwestern Mutual Life, both in Milwaukee and both creating more than 1,000 jobs; Quad/Graphics, Inc., Sussex, 750 jobs; GSI Commerce, Eau Claire, 700 jobs; and Flambeau Rivers Papers, LLC, Park Falls, 300 jobs.

States were compared only with those in one of three similar population categories. In ach category, Area Development chose the states with the top three weighted scores to receive its runner-up Silver Shovel awards. Wisconsin joined Kentucky and Alabama as Silver Shovel Winners in the 3- to 10-million population category. In the under- 3-million population category, Nebraska, Utah, and Kansas received Silver Shovels, and Missouri. Texas, Michigan, and Pennsylvania won Silver Shovels in the over-10-million population category.

Founded in 1965, Area Development is the leading executive magazine covering corporate site selection and relocation.

-- Mary P. Burke, Secretary