Governor Parson discusses workforce development in local visit

Thursday, February 11, 2021
Platinum Aerostructures President James Kirby (left) and CEO Ken Loomer (right) gave Governor Mike Parson a tour of the facility Thursday afternoon. The visit was the first of two for the Governor's local visit, the second being a tour of 3M.
Photo by Sarah Haney | Daily Mail Editor

Governor Mike Parson arrived in Nevada Thursday afternoon to tour two of the local manufacturing facilities — Platinum Aerostructures and 3M.

“It's the exact thing we've been working on all the time — trying to recruit Missouri businesses and how we expand them,” stated Governor Parson, in reference to his thoughts of the tour. “How do we actually do business in our state? We know this company is tied to Boeing and that they do a lot of products, so how can we expand that business? And for Boeing to utilize maybe more Missouri companies, much like some of the things we did at General Motors we expanded there. They have about 1,200 affiliate companies in Missouri that supply their parts. So, this is a perfect example of what we would like to do to expand businesses in the state. Whatever we can do to bring it together and get this company a contract with Boeing or anyone else that they might be able to do business with. Right now, there's some opportunity to do that in our state."

Governor Parson also discussed the potential for job growth locally. “How do we utilize every bit of this space that they have and how do we expand assembly lines,” noted Parson, in regards to the facility. “Not only that, for Nevada, how do you create more jobs? At the end of the day, that's what it is. These are good jobs — they're steady jobs, and that's what people are looking for.”

The Nevada Daily Mail asked Governor Parson whether he believed Missouri would see an influx in businesses relocating to the Show-Me state, due to COVID-19 closures in their original locations. “I think yes, to answer that question, but I think that's been going on long before the pandemic hit,” he noted. “I know that we were having a lot of success bringing businesses to our state, especially when it comes to distribution centers. Our growth in our state was extremely high — unemployment was at record lows. Even during the pandemic, there was probably over 10,000 new jobs created. That's new jobs — not the existing ones that we had or that we lost.” Parson added that this included over $1 billion worth of expansion and construction for new businesses. “I think there is a huge opportunity for these states that shut their businesses down to be able to relocate to Missouri and that's a good selling point for us,” stated Parson.

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