State Officials Work to Attract High-Tech Jobs

State officials are focusing on growing industries to help offset job losses from the falling economy. MPB’s Stephen Koranda reports.

it's been announced a factory in north east Mississippi is expanding. Alliant Techsystems Incorporated, commonly known as ATK, will expand it’s Iuka plant by more than 600 jobs over the next 8 years. The facility makes aircraft components. Tishomingo County needs the jobs, says Representative Bubba Carpenter of Burnsville.

“We’re at 11 percent unemployment right now, closing factories all over the county,” says Carpernter. “People are hurting and need some work, so this is great.”

Mississippi has been working hard to attract high-tech jobs. Governor Haley Barbour says the plant expansion shows progress, but the economic downturn has made bringing in companies more difficult.

“There are a lot of projects that we were working on a year ago that either they decided the couldn’t get their financing, or they decided they don’t need to expand their capacity,” says Barbour.

Mississippi is focusing on aviation, a growing industry. The state also has General Electric and Northrop Grumman aviation facilities. Gray Swoope is the Executive Director of the Mississippi Development Authority.

“This is a complete industry makeover, moving from metals to a composite material,” says Swoope. “This is going to happen because of the demand for lightweight, more fuel-efficient aircraft.”

ATK will spend at least 200 million dollars to expand the Iuka plant. The state is providing a 25 million dollar grant to help get the project off the ground. Barbour says the state will recoup the money in around 7 years.