thousand jobs

All who were involved in making possible the exciting announcement on Thursday that Alorica, Inc. will create 1,000 jobs at a new technical support center in North Sioux City can take a well-deserved bow.

The news continues a string of positive metro area job announcements made within the last 18 months: Qwest Communications, 450 new jobs in Sioux City; Interbake Foods, 250 new jobs in North Sioux City; Chief Energy Co., 40 new jobs at a planned ethanol plant in Sioux City; Portionables, 100 new jobs in North Sioux City; Gateway, 130 new jobs in North Sioux City; MachineryLink Inc., 100 new jobs in North Sioux City; BPI, 200 new jobs in South Sioux City; and with the opening of Lakeport Commons in Sioux City, some 200 to 300 new jobs became available.

This metro region has fostered a cooperative spirit and a philosophy of what benefits one, benefits all in terms of economic development. The Alorica announcement defines that philosophy. The tech center will be located in North Sioux City, but all of the metro region stands to benefit.

As we said when Qwest and Interbake made their announcements of 700 new jobs in March 2005, many and varied benefits are attached to major private-sector job-creation announcements. First and foremost is the economic value such investments have as workers take the jobs and spend money. Not to be overlooked, though, are ancillary benefits such as the creation of local excitement and optimism and the positive impact these kinds of announcements potentially can have on continuing efforts to land more jobs.

Andy Lee, Alorica's chief executive officer, is a former Gateway executive who spent time at the computer maker's North Sioux City complex. We applaud him for his decision to expand his growing new company in that same community and welcome Alorica to the metro region.