North Carolina is in a new category of economic development excellence, recently honored with the Platinum Shovel Award, which is presented to states that have achieved the most success in new job creation and company capital investment. The accolades come from industry-leading economic development and site selection publication Area Development, which recognizes states with its Annual Shovel Awards.
This year, Area Development celebrated 18 states. Texas, Virginia, Arizona, Kentucky, and Kansas are being awarded Gold Shovels in overall recognition of job-creating/investment projects begun in 2021. Two states — North Carolina and Tennessee — went beyond the Gold Shovel standard, and are being recognized for their achievements with the new Platinum Shovel awards.
Platinum honoree North Carolina, collected four billion-dollar-plus deals, the publication noted, including the Red Bull-Rauch announcement in Cabarrus County. The beverage manufacturing hub is bringing together beverage makers Red Bull and Rauch along with container and packaging giant Ball Corp. Altogether, the project is worth more than a billion dollars and more than 600 jobs.
“With news like that, it was clear that we’re going to need a bigger award — not just Gold, but Platinum,” editors at Area Development wrote.
As the nation made a swift post-pandemic economic recovery in 2021, the Shovel Awards honored the states and local economic development agencies that garnered large job-creating and investment projects through innovative policies, infrastructure improvements, and other processes that attracted new employers as well as investments in expanded facilities.
Each of the 50 states was invited by Area Development to submit information about its top-10 job creation and investment projects. Only those projects that began to materialize in 2021 were considered. The Shovel Awards are given to the states with the highest weighted scores based on the number of high-valued added jobs per capita, amount of company investment, and industry diversity.
A full report on the 2022 Shovel Award winners along with a look at the most significant projects across the country is published in Area Development. To read more, click here.
