Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. We need more jobs! You hear it all the time, but where do they really come from?
Our region has worked hard over the years to bring in new businesses and keep the ones we have. All in an effort to help bring jobs. In fact, since 1992, an organization called Cape Girardeau Area MAGNET has led the way.
MAGNET is funded by Cape Girardeau County, the cities of Cape, Jackson and Scott City, and the Cape Chamber. These five entities came together to create a regional approach to business growth. I say that to set the scene. There’s the big stuff that makes news…the new manufacturer, a big box store moving into town, but it’s often what doesn’t make the news that makes the biggest difference.
Statistics show that approximately 80% of our job growth comes from existing businesses. 80%. MAGNET's Business Retention and Expansion program lets us spend a lot of time with those job creators…whether that means helping navigate a governmental issue, connecting them with new potential employees or even helping them expand when things are going well.
But it’s really more than working with individual businesses, it’s identifying key trends that help shape strategic decisions in our region. For instance, after meeting with area logistics companies, we could see there was a shortage of Commercial Drivers Licenses, CDLs. Since that time, we’ve connected several people around this issue and continue to make progress toward decreasing this shortage. This is just a small example of how MAGNET is working to improve our region and pave the way for our existing businesses to create more jobs.
