At least one major U.S. company is on a hiring roll. GE just announced a $56-million investment in a new 300,000-square-foot aviation plant, which will create 250 new full-time jobs, not to mention the construction positions necessary to build it.
The new GE aviation facility will be located in Ellisville and is expected to open in 2013. That's GE's second Mississippi aviation manufacturing plant, joining another that opened in Batesville in 2008. Both will manufacture advanced composite components for aircraft engines and systems. Batesville's facility has added 300 employees over the past three years and GE Aviation plans to invest about $150 million in the two locations by the end of the decade.
"GE Aviation's decision to expand its presence in Mississippi and build a new facility in Ellisville speaks volumes about the company's ongoing confidence in Mississippi's business climate, in our research capabilities and in our skilled workforce," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.
This growth is partially instigated by the new engine and service orders totaling $27 billion that GE received at the recent Paris Air Show. GE aviation has more than 30 facilities across the U.S. The company says these orders are the result of breakthroughs in composite material technology that allow GE engineers to design and build aircraft engines and systems that are lighter, stronger and last longer.
GE has been adding manufacturing plants and jobs lately in other parts of the country as well, most recently in New York, Texas and Pennsylvania. The company has been responsible for the creation of approximately 8,000 new high-tech manufacturing jobs over the past 18 months. The new jobs in Mississippi will be in addition to that.
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By Lisa Johnson Mandell,
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