FORT WAYNE, Ind. (November 4, 2011) – The Fiscal Times issued an article today stating that the Fort Wayne metro area has the highest job growth rate in the nation. The online publication ranked the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S. by the rate of new job generation over the past 12 months, compared to the number of jobs they had in September 2010.
The Fort Wayne metro area added 8,000 jobs to its base of 203,000 jobs, which gave Fort Wayne a 3.9 percent increase in the total number of jobs, placing the city at the top ranking. That surge was also enough to bring the unemployment rate down by 1.3 percentage points to 8.1 percent – a full point below the national average. Thursday. “We’ve had a real coming together of the private sector and the public sector to get things done.”
“We’ve got our act together,” Andi Udris, president of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance, told The Fiscal Times Thursday. “We’ve had a real coming together of the private sector and the public sector to get things done.”
The Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance (the Alliance) has realized tremendous success this year in corporate investment and new job creation. The Alliance, with the help of its partners, the City of Fort Wayne and Allen County, have brought $484 million of investment to the area in 2011.
"The magnitude of corporate investment in our community has fueled its job growth," said Udris. "It is not surprising that the Fort Wayne area has been ranked #1 in job creation by this news source."