Kansas receives third straight Silver Shovel Award from Area Development magazine
For the third straight year, Area Development magazine has named Kansas the winner of the Silver Shovel Award for job creation and capital investment, officials announced today.
The rankings were part of Area Development’s annual Golden Shovel Awards, which recognize the states that score the most points on the magazine’s weighted index of direct job creation numbers, new jobs per capita, amount of new investment, number of new facilities and number of projects creating high value-added jobs in 2007. Kansas was awarded a Silver Shovel Award for being the top-ranked state in the “under 3 million” population category.
The Kansas Department of Commerce will be presented with a full-sized Silver Shovel and engraved plaque to commemorate the award.
“We’re honored to receive a third straight Silver Shovel Award from one of the industry’s top publications,” said Governor Kathleen Sebelius. “We’re doing some great things for business in Kansas, and people across the nation are taking note.”
Complete coverage of the Gold and Silver Shovel Awards will appear in the magazine’s June issue and at www.areadevelopment.com.
The announcement from Area Development comes just six weeks after Pollina Corporate Real Estate named Kansas a Top 10 pro-business state and two weeks after Site Selection magazine named Kansas a Top 10 state in its annual Competiveness Awards.
“What a great few weeks this has been for Kansas business development efforts,” said Secretary of Commerce David Kerr. “Three major awards in six weeks is a great run, and it points to the success we’re having in making Kansas one of the nation’s top states for business.”
Fiscal Year 2007 saw the Department of Commerce involved in 43 location, expansion or retention projects in which Kansas was competing with out-of-state locations. These projects resulted in 6,800 jobs created or retained and $780 million in capital investment, an increase of $408 million from the previous year. Companies that built or expanded facilities included Pacific Sunwear, Prescription Solutions, Service Magic, Alorica and Capgemini, among others.
For more information, contact Joe Monaco, Public Information Officer with the Kansas Department of Commerce, at (785) 296-3760 or jmonaco@kansascommerce.com.
###
