[GreggT]

Just saw in an AP article where Alabama had the 3rd worse job growth in the nation since 2007, thought Bentley was bragging about the number of jobs he created since coming to office?? Of course here in Alabama what choices do we have...........
News from The Associated Press

[dijkstra]

I would speculate that the number are skewed due to the majority of the manual labor/construction jobs haven been replaced by undocumented, under the table, low paid illegal immigrants. There are thousand upon thousands of them in Huntsville alone now.

[Tourian]

Bentley is all about the high profile photo op jobs he created/bought in Madison Co. The Remington plant, the extra Verizon call center jobs, and the auto supplier that is sniffing around if they land that. He doesn't care about the rest of the state, nor will he allow things like hard numbers douse his self-aggrandizement.

[dijkstra]

From what I have seen for pay scales at the new Remington plant, it isn't going to be anything to brag about. The factory positions are only going to pay around $10.50 an hour. Hell Burger King pays that for crying out loud.

[cpg35223]

Two huge blows in 2007-2008: Construction and Banking. Remember that Birmingham was the third-largest banking center in the nation prior to the collapse.

[pjg66]

Some additional thoughts on this:

A few months ago there was a report that during 2013 Alabama placed 49th among the states for rate of job growth. We beat out only Alaska, which actually lost jobs during that period.

A news article a few days ago reported that from May to June of this year Alabama had a net job loss of 3500 jobs.

And a report today that between June 2013 and June 2014 Alabama placed 47th for rate of job growth, beating out only New Jersey, Vermont and Alaska. Jobs in Alabama grew at less than 0.3%, whereas 38 states had had growth rates of 1% or more and 7 states had rates of 3% or more. Alabama is the only state to have its unemployment rate increase during this time.

So in spite of Bentley's huffing and puffing about what a great place this state is to do business, and in spite of a few high profile job announcements (e.g. Remington), and in spite of the governor taking taxpayer funded jaunts around the world to drum up business, the bottom line truth is that in comparison to other states Alabama is doing miserably at job creation.

[PortCity]

Riley, was a better governor by leaps and bounds. I hope Alabamians have enough sense to unseat him!

[Tourian]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

Two huge blows in 2007-2008: Construction and Banking. Remember that Birmingham was the third-largest banking center in the nation prior to the collapse.

Originally Posted by pjg66

So in spite of Bentley's huffing and puffing about what a great place this state is to do business, and in spite of a few high profile job announcements (e.g. Remington), and in spite of the governor taking taxpayer funded jaunts around the world to drum up business, the bottom line truth is that in comparison to other states Alabama is doing miserably at job creation.

Well, an easy win would be to try to lure in another bank to the Birmingham area. The merger left lots of talent in the area that have now either moved to other cities or absorbed by the banks that remain. There's also the matter of selling Birmingham as hub for both the auto and aerospace industry and helping lure a big player to the Kaiser property at the the Airport. But he won't do that either. The only thing he did do was not make a snide remark about Birmingham trying to land the DNC, he didn't make himself look like a fool like some other Republican did (who's name escapes me at the moment). Instead he's only going to jump on something that is politically motivated, like a gun company leaving a blue northern state, or an airplane manufacturer that is in direct competition to a company that Obama has helped.

The easier/more effective task of putting major effort of getting the state's largest metro growing strong again is just not on the radar because it would be helping the enemy in his eyes.

[EDI Expert]

Originally Posted by Tourian

Well, an easy win would be to try to lure in another bank to the Birmingham area. The merger left lots of talent in the area that have now either moved to other cities or absorbed by the banks that remain. There's also the matter of selling Birmingham as hub for both the auto and aerospace industry and helping lure a big player to the Kaiser property at the the Airport. But he won't do that either. The only thing he did do was not make a snide remark about Birmingham trying to land the DNC, he didn't make himself look like a fool like some other Republican did (who's name escapes me at the moment). Instead he's only going to jump on something that is politically motivated, like a gun company leaving a blue northern state, or an airplane manufacturer that is in direct competition to a company that Obama has helped.

The easier/more effective task of putting major effort of getting the state's largest metro growing strong again is just not on the radar because it would be helping the enemy in his eyes.

Nice long drivel there.


Regards
Tourian the archbishop of chode