NASHVILLE Gov. Don Sundquist said Wednesday that Tennessee has enjoyed a productive era during his eight-year watch, with the creation of 285,000 jobs and more than $40 billion in capital investment.
“Our state has recorded its best eight years ever in job-creation and capital investment,” Sundquist told dozens of supporters at the Capitol, citing investments by companies such as Dell Computer, International Paper, Nissan, Goodyear, General Motors and others.
The announcement comes as the state’s manufacturing sector continues to lay off workers, and U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics show Tennesseans falling farther behind the national average in earnings.
This week Peterbilt Motor Co. said it will lay off 500 workers at its truck plant in Madison, and furniture upholstery maker Culp Inc. announced it will close its Chattanooga plant and lay off 350 workers.
The governor’s 285,000 job creation figure includes manufacturing and distribution but excludes lower-wage retail and food service jobs, said Economic and Community Development
Commissioner Tony Grande.
The average weekly wage of a manufacturing worker in Tennessee in 2000 was $693, compared with $558 for a service-sector worker, according to state statistics.
Grande estimates that the state’s net job gain over the last eight years is about 200,000, with the sharpest losses coming in the recent economic slowdown. Last year, the state created 27,000
jobs and lost 24,000 - the poorest showing of Sundquist’s eight years, Grande said.
Although Tennessee’s per capita income since 1994 has increased by 31 per! cent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor reports that Tennesseans are slipping farther behind the national average.
The average Tennessean earned $27,248 in 1997 - $3,105 less than the national average. By 2000, the latest comparison available, the state average was $30,554 - $4,769 less than the national figure.
University of Tennessee economist Bill Fox said recently that Tennessee has always trailed the national average in per capita income but gained ground in the 1990s, pulling to within 90 to 92 percent of the average. Now, he said, the state is back to about 86 or 87 percent.
Grande believes the slump is an anomaly in Tennessee’s transition from lower-wage textile manufacturing to higher-wage automotive and computer manufacturing.
“We’ve got to have another eight years” of strong investment and job growth to keep pace with the national per capita average, he said. “This is the kind of thing we need to be doing more of.”
Sundquist credits the economic success of his administration to Grande and the three other economic and community development commissioners who served with him, and vows to continue working to bring jobs to the state during the few remaining months of his term. He plans a trip to Europe, citing business prospects in England and Italy.
He also offered to accompany the new governor - Republican or Democrat - as well as former governors Ned McWherter, Lamar Alexander and Winfield Dunn on an economic development tour to share contacts and show that “Tennessee speaks with one voice.”
The governor said existing industry expansions accounted for 78 percent of the state’s new capital investment and 67 percent of its
new jobs since 1994.
Eighty four percent o! f the projects the state has announced in the last eight years have been in manufacturing and account for 66 percent of the state’s new jobs. The remaining 34 percent of jobs were the result of headquarter, distribution and service industry projects.
The economic growth figures are compiled by the state’s Economic and Community Development Research Division. Included in service industry projects are transportation services, communications, finance, insurance, real estate firms, hotels and motels, business services, health services and cultural interests.
