NEW JOBS SLATED FOR CAPE GIRARDEAU AREA

In just the past week, there have been three announcements regarding industrial expansion and additional job opportunities in the Cape Girardeau area. Each of the announcements further bolster this area's position as a regional hub for jobs, education, health care and shopping.

While it is certainly appropriate to take pride in the industrial development in our area, the hard work that maintains those jobs and, from time to time, adds more jobs is too often taken for granted.

This area enjoys a low unemployment rate, as does much of Missouri and the nation. This is both good news and bad news. It is good news that nearly everyone who wants a job has one. And it is bad news when employers try to hire workers and find the supply is limited.

Invisible to most of us are the ongoing efforts to maintain good jobs and to convince companies that Cape Girardeau is a good place to locate. This workload is shared by many. Existing employers, for example, play a significant role. The chambers of commerce are vitally important. And the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association also is a key player.

Often, the industrial recruitment association is the least visible to most of the community, except when major announcements about new jobs or new industries are made. The rest of the time, this recruiting effort operates behind the scenes trying to match employers' needs with community resources. All of these components were seen in the announcements of the past week.

-- Zenair of Canada Ltd. and Independent Manufacturing and Development Co. announced plans for a plant to produce airplanes at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. Production will start in an existing building and then move to a new building to be financed by a bond issue approved last year by the City Council.

It has taken months to get all the details ironed out for this aircraft-production plant. Cape Girardeau was one of many locations considered for the plant's site. It is no accident that the companies chose Cape Girardeau. Hard work by city, county and state officials, along with chamber and industrial recruitment officials, made it happen.

-- An as-yet-unidentified telecommunications company may locate a center here, provided it can find 250 workers. A survey is being conducted by the Cape Girardeau chamber,the Missouri Division of Employment Security, the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School and Southeast Missouri State University.

Again, this is an example of broad cooperation. The university sees a good match between the prospective jobs and students who are looking for work.

-- Procter & Gamble Paper Products Co., whose plant north of Cape Girardeau is the largest employer in our area, in well into a multimillion-dollar expansion that will add jobs and allow the company to expand the products made here. The growing company is also looking at sites for still more expansion. And Cape Girardeau is among the locations being considered.

This is an instance of a strong, vibrant company -- one that already has a major presence in the community -- looking for even more possibilities that could add more production and bigger payrolls.

The momentum of growth in jobs isn't self-sustaining. Having a good track record is a must for attracting more employers. But it takes hard work and careful attention to the needs of those future employers and the needs of the community to make something positive happen. Cape Girardeau is fortunate to have capable and hard-working professionals who know how to get things done.

Perhaps the best ingredient in this mix is cooperation. And there is plenty of that, as the past week's announcements have clearly shown.