Florida Florida’s economy is carrying on where it left off in 2013 — with some of the best job growth in the nation. The number of competitive jobs projects won by Florida during fiscal year 2013 jumped almost 25 percent over fiscal year 2012, creating 41 percent more private-sector jobs and nearly 30 percent more capital investments. In April the Scott administration eliminated the manufacturing and equipment sales tax on manufacturing companies, which is expected to save manufacturers in the state more than $140 million annually.

Key industries in Florida are aerospace and aviation, life sciences, manufacturing, IT, financial and professional services, and logistics and distribution. Sectors expected to have the strongest job growth over the next three years are construction (10 percent), professional and business services (4.3 percent), and trade, transportation, and utilities (4 percent).

Over half of Florida’s top-10 economic development projects are in financial and professional services. These include Bank of America ($13 million, 1,500 jobs), USAA ($163 million, 1,215 jobs), Comprehensive Health Management (nearly $2 million, 700 jobs), and Healthplan Holdings ($4.18 million, 1,025 jobs). In Lake Mary, Verizon recently opened a new $50 million, 220,000-square-foot finance center.

Another major financial project is Navy Federal Credit Union’s $200 million expansion in Pensacola, where it is building 342,000 square feet of office space at its existing campus, creating 1,500 new jobs. To date, the credit union has invested over $225 million in its Pensacola operations. “Our expansion is key to supporting Navy Federal’s strong growth and we are proud to be part of the economic growth for the area,” says Cutler Dawson, president and CEO at the credit union.

New York Over the 12-month period ending March 2014, New York added 108,200 private-sector jobs, a 1.5 percent increase over the previous year. The TechAmerica Foundation indicates that New York ranked third in the country for high-tech employment in 2012 (behind only California and Texas). New York also placed near the top in more than half of the IT sectors the foundation tracks, including computer systems design.

Therefore, it is not surprising that several of the state’s top-10 development projects in 2013 were IT-related. These include Global Foundries’ research center in Malta (see Project of the Year) and Advanced Nanotechnology Solutions in Marcy, which is creating 1,000 jobs. It will be housed at the $125 million, 253,000-square-foot Computer Chip Commercialization Center, better known as Quad-C at SUNYIT. With an annual operating budget of $500 million, the center will host public-private partnerships through the $1.5 billion Nano Utica initiative.

Other key industries in New York are life sciences, advanced materials, data centers, logistics and distribution, and food processing. Projects in life sciences and pharmaceuticals include the expansion of the New York Genome Center ($135 million, 400 jobs) and Amneal Pharmaceuticals’ $50 million expansion in Yaphank. Hoffman La Roche also recently opened its $5 million Translational and Clinical Research Center (TCRC) in New York City’s Alexandria Center for Life Science.

“Our location in New York City will enable us to combine our expertise with that of world-class researchers here in a vibrant scientific environment,” sates Judith Dunn, head of the Roche TCRC. “We will be engaging collaborators in a transformative approach to drug development, which will provide solutions for unmet medical needs and ultimately improve the lives of patients and their families.”

MethodologyArea Development’s annual Gold and Silver Shovel Awards recognize states for their achievements in attracting high-value investment projects that will create a significant number of new jobs in their communities. We collected information from all 50 states about their top-10 job-creation and investment projects initiated in 2013 (only those projects that actually had monies invested, “broke ground,” began an expansion, started new hiring, etc. were considered). Based on a combination of weighted factors — including the number of new jobs to be created in relation to the state’s population, the combined dollar amount of the investments, the number of new facilities, the diversity of industry represented — five states achieving the highest weighted overall scores are awarded Area Development’s 2014 Gold Shovels in five population categories: 15+ million, 8+ to 15 million, 5+ to 8 million, 3+ to 5 million, and fewer than 3 million. Runners up in each of these population categories are awarded 2014 Silver Shovels.