CHICAGO (Monday, 29 November 2004) – While most U.S. state governments are
losing ground to global competition due to their poor efforts at keeping jobs and
attracting businesses, a new study praises the efforts of 10 states, including Oklahoma,
for their progressive pro-business policies that result in job growth.
“While many of the overseas job losses are inevitable, a surprising number of jobs can be
kept in the U.S. if we make the right efforts to work with businesses,” says Dr. Ronald R.
Pollina, author of the Top Ten Pro-Business States 2005: Keeping Jobs in America, an
annual national study on state and Federal economic development policies
“Each job loss has a reverse multiplier effect on the local economy of between 1.5 and
1.7 jobs. This means that the impact of losing the 3 million U.S. manufacturing jobs that
vanished between July 2000 and January 2004 could reach 5.1 million in total lost jobs,”
says Dr. Pollina, who gives states ranking in the bottom of the survey an “F” grade for
costing their constituents jobs. “U.S. job retention efforts are a bi-partisan disaster. As
more manufacturing and service sector jobs go offshore, most states urgently need to
reevaluate their economic development efforts.
“Unlike Oklahoma, many large states such as California, New York, Illinois and Ohio, let
jobs slip through their fingers because of high taxes, weak economic development
programs or prodigious red tape. States that score in the bottom half of the Pollina study
often push jobs out of their states and offshore,” says Dr. Pollina, president of Chicagobased
Pollina Corporate Real Estate, Inc., one of the nation’s top corporate site locators.
“Keeping U.S. jobs requires a triage approach,” says Dr. Pollina. “Governments must
identify which jobs will move offshore no matter what, those that will stay, and jobs that
can be saved by providing the right pro-business environment and economic incentives.
Anyone who believes that we are only experiencing competition that in time will be
overcome by superior U.S. ingenuity is not only arrogant, but foolhardy. They don’t
understand the complexities of the international economic system.”
Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry said that Oklahoma has worked hard to improve the
state’s business environment over the past few years and it is gratifying to be recognized
nationally for those efforts. “Our first priority is to keep the jobs already here,” Henry
said, “but we are also becoming extremely competitive for new business as well. Our
recent addition of Dell, with nearly 1,000 new jobs and a multi-acre campus facility, is a
good example of how Oklahoma’s incentives, combined with an eager and productive
workforce, are leading to wealth creation for all Oklahomans.”
Oklahoma’s Secretary of Commerce and Tourism Kathryn Taylor added that the state’s
incentives were among the best in the country and that the state’s cash-back for-jobs
program, among others, benefits existing businesses as well as companies moving to the
state.
“We often hear that the Oklahoma business environment is the best-kept secret in the
nation, but more and more companies are learning about the advantages of doing business
in Oklahoma,” Taylor said. “In addition to the outstanding incentives and workforce,
Oklahoma offers businesses a central location, great year-round weather, free workforce
training, low cost of operation, a great lifestyle for employees and many others.”
The report notes that since 2000, approximately 8,500 industrial facilities in the
U.S. have been closed or significantly vacated as blue-collar jobs move to low
wage markets overseas.
The Pollina Corporate list of the Top Ten Pro-Business States 2005 is headed by South
Carolina. Besides Oklahoma, the full list includes Virginia, South Dakota, North
Carolina, Alabama, Wyoming, Georgia, Washington, and Florida. |
