ERLANGER – More than 1,800 jobs are expected to be created in Northern Kentucky over the next three years by 22 companies that moved into the area last year or local companies that plan to expand, undeterred by the weak economy.
Those companies are among multiple businesses thanked Monday at the 2011 Thoroughbred Awards luncheon organized by the Northern Kentucky Tri-County Economic Development Corp. (Tri-Ed) at the Northern Kentucky University METS Center in Erlanger.
Northern Kentucky Tri-Ed president and CEO Dan Tobergte will report that those firms are projected to create a combined 1,812 primary jobs by 2013.
The 2010 figures are up greatly from 2009, when Tri-Ed reported that 10 companies it worked with had plans to create 1,286 jobs over three years.
Tri-Ed officials attribute the gain to an uptick in economic conditions and aggressive marketing to bring new companies to Northern Kentucky.
Tobergte expects the job gains to come mainly from the advanced manufacturing, information technology and financial services industries.
“It shows that Northern Kentucky is pulling out of the recession,” he said.
Normand G. Desmarais, founding partner at Tier 1 Performance Solutions, a Covington-based a provider of online learning and knowledge management, said both revenue and employment at his firm are expected to grow 30 percent this year, fueled by new clients and doing more business with existing clients. The firm now employs about 40 people in Northern Kentucky.
He expects local employment to increase by about 60 people by 2013.
“We’re experiencing a positive climate for job creations and expect to continue do so at least for the next two years,” Desmarais said.
The 22 companies Tri-Ed helped attract last year are projected to generate 3,513 primary and indirect jobs over the next three years. Those firms expect to invest more than $200 million into the community during that period.
Tri-Ed said primary jobs are those created by companies as they hire new workers when they open or expand. It says indirect jobs are created as result of a new company expanding and that growth drives the need for additional services in the community.
“In 2010, we saw an increase in primary jobs and capital investments within our three-county region of Northern Kentucky,” said Campbell County Judge-executive Steve Pendery, chairman of Tri-Ed’s board. “The number of new and expanding companies in the region more than doubled from the previous year and businesses started investing again despite the economy.”
Tri-Ed’s latest economic-impact study was completed by Northern Kentucky University’s Center for Economic Analysis and Development, run by its senior director and local economist Janet Harrah. Tri-Ed also uses that center to compile a data analysis of actual jobs created annually in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties that’s typically released by fall.
Tri-Ed places special emphasis on the “primary” jobs because those are the kind it’s responsible for creating in Northern Kentucky. Those jobs had an average pay last year of nearly $55,000 per worker.
Since 1987, Tri-Ed has encouraged 512 companies to move into or expand in Boone, Kenton or Campbell counties, creating 50,267 new primary jobs and spending $4.8 billion mainly on land, building and equipment.
As part of the Vision 2015 process announced in early 2006, civic leaders called for Tri-Ed to create 14,300 primary jobs by 2015 plus other jobs, including those caused by ripple effects, for a total of 50,000.
Karen Finan, senior vice president at Tri-Ed, said the economic downturn in 2009 has not deterred Tri-Ed from working to reach its overall goal.
Wake Smith, CEO of Pemco World Air Services, said his company hopes to employ up to 300 workers by 2013 at the regional aircraft maintenance and repair operation it opened in October 2010 at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
He said the company now has about 100 employees at its hangar at the airport and plans to boost employment as business increases.
The Tampa, Fla.-based firm does mechanical repair work on regional aircraft with 50 to 100 seats. It also has hangars in Dothan, Ala., and Tampa, Fla.
“CVG provides us a central location to serve the eastern half of the country,” Smith said.
Smith said Tri-Ed assisted with his firm’s expansion into Northern Kentucky by helping get local and state tax incentives.
Mike Hyslop, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Jacobs Automation, a Hebron-based firm that develops new automation technology for the packaging and material handling industries, said the firm expects to create nine high-tech jobs in the next 18 months. He said job growth at Jacobs Automation, which now has six employees, would come from landing business with new clients.
“We expect to create more jobs because we’re in a $30 billion packing industry that is growing fast,” Hyslop said.
