Top 100 - Big Fish

North Carolina and Georgia land monster fish to tie for State of the Year. But, they are not the only states in the South that hooked some giants. It’s been a year no one has ever seen in economic development in the Southern U.S.

Things have transitioned and been modified with our annual SB&D ranking of the biggest economic development projects in the South. After about 30 years, SB&D has streamlined what is the only ranking of significant job and investment generating deals in the American South. Yes, it is one-of-a-kind data unavailable from any other source.

In decades past, we have brought you just about every project announced in the South of 200 jobs and/or $30 million in investment and published the results. It was rewarding, but painstaking for not only us, but you, the reader and the many sources we used to find the information. It was a tough but valuable resource. It had its place for 30 years.

SB&D doesn’t judge an economy as an economist does, such as using real-time data like quarterly GDP, worker productivity and monthly unemployment rates. Unemployment rates are incredibly important in economic development, as is job creation. Yet, we believe there are more important drivers to an economy; like comparing major projects from one year to another. Obviously, if it is an active year of business and industry making momentous investments and generating gobs of jobs, the economy is either in fine shape or those corporate experts expect it to be within two or three years.

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