St. Louis County looking forward to adding 800 jobs
St. Louis Business Journal
November 24, 2010
By Evan Binns
The addition of almost 800 new jobs over the next several years is welcome news for St. Louis, which has suffered an average unemployment rate of about 10 percent over the past two years.
Within the past six months, a number of companies, as well as the federal government, announced their plans to bring new jobs to the metropolitan market. St. Louis County Economic Council President Denny Coleman said the influx of work bodes well for the region, given the increased demand for skilled labor in a variety of industries. "The breadth and significance of business expansions is a very positive sign for 2011," he said.
About 9.1 percent of the St. Louis County work force, or 46,484 workers, was unemployed as of October, the most recent data available from the Missouri Department of Economic Development. That compares with county unemployment of 9.4 percent last October. St. Louis County has fared slightly better than the entire St. Louis metropolitan statistical area, which includes Metro East, where unemployment was 9.3 percent in October, compared with 10.2 percent in October 2009.
The most recent jobs announcement came from Gallus Biopharmaceuticals, a new firm started by President and CEO Mark Bamforth, which announced in November its plans to buy and expand Johnson & Johnson's Centocor Biologics campus in Berkeley in St. Louis County.
Gallus and its investors plan to spend $71.5 million on its expansion and add 135 new jobs over the next several years, according to Shelly Adams, Gallus' California-based vice president of sales and marketing. "Next year, we anticipate that we should be somewhere around 200 employees on this site," she said. Adams said the jobs would employ technical and scientific workers.
"This is really an opportunity to not only save jobs in that plant, but Mark also plans to significantly increase the business and the amount of employment," Coleman said.
In October, the USDA announced plans to bring 100 full-time jobs and 300 part-time jobs to its newly established USDA operations center, located at the former Army Records Center at 9700 Page Ave. in Overland.
"We have some industry sectors that are growing very rapidly here, and we're seeing that growth in projects such as the USDA relocation project, which is not only saving those existing jobs but back-filling jobs in Overland" that are moving, Coleman said. The back-fill in jobs comes nearly three years after the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration decided to relocate a military personnel records facility in Overland and 800 workers to a new $100 million leased facility at 1829 Dunn Road in north St. Louis County. The federal government plans to spend $35 million over five years to convert the Overland center to a new resource-efficient and environmentally sound facility, which is expected to open in late 2011.
"This new center will not only create good jobs, it will also reutilize federal property in an energy-efficient, cost-effective way," U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Missouri, said in a statement.
Liberty Mutual Group, Missouri's second-largest workers' compensation insurance group, also announced plans in October to spend about $2 million and add 100 jobs as it expands its operations in Fenton and St. Louis County. Over the next two years, the insurance company plans to create about 100 full-time jobs, according to the St. Louis County Economic Council.
Earlier this year, Liberty Mutual, which is owned by Boston-based Liberty Mutual Holding Co. Inc., signed a seven-year lease for about 55,000 square feet of office space at 1400 S. Highway Drive in unincorporated St. Louis County.
In addition to the wave of new jobs scheduled to arrive in the metro area within the coming year, St. Louis pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts said it's considering adding at least 150 new jobs and constructing a new $63 million building in north St. Louis County.
The St. Louis County Economic Council submitted a request Nov. 1 to St. Louis County for an incentives package aimed at keeping 1,300 jobs and adding at least 150 new jobs at Express Scripts.
However, news of the planned local hiring came shortly after Express Scripts announced in October its intentions to shut down its dispensing pharmacy facility in Bensalem, Pa., on Dec. 16 and lay off 365 employees. The company also plans to consolidate and outsource some call-center functions in Ohio and Minnesota, affecting 138 more workers.
Still, Coleman said the St. Louis area is primed for job growth. "Job outlook for 2011 should improve and gain some momentum," he said. "These expansions show that we're well-positioned for that improvement."
