Governor Jay Nixon, in France as part of the administration's trade mission to Western Europe, announced that one of Missouri's top employers and global brands is set to embark upon a significant expansion at its St. Louis County location. Aerospace giant Boeing, which employs approximately 15,000 workers at its local campus, will be opening an information technology center at its St. Louis location that will bring at least 400 jobs to the area. The company's plan is part of a large-scale restructuring of its information technology operations, which are currently located in Seattle.
"Once again, another iconic brand that calls Missouri home is choosing to increase its investment in the Show-Me State, leading to high-paying jobs for Missourians and providing another significant boost to the state's economy," Gov. Nixon said. "The decision by Boeing to open an information technology center in St. Louis follows news of other major expansions by Monsanto and Ford that were announced this spring, totaling thousands of new career-supporting jobs that continue to power Missouri's economy."
Boeing is launching a plan to realign its 7,900 person internal IT unit, which handles a wide range of services for the company including fixing laptops to designing complex aircraft software. As part of the reconfiguration, the company plans to add at least 400 jobs to Boeing's massive north St. Louis County campus, headquarters of its defense unit, while others will be moved to the company's location in Charleston, South Carolina. The move will further position St. Louis as a region with significant strength in the technology industry. In just the past two years, companies such as Unisys, Express Scripts and Wells Fargo Advisors, among others, have increased their hiring of IT workers.
The state of Missouri is helping make Boeing's expansion in St. Louis County possible through a strategic package of economic incentives, which the company can redeem if it meets the strict job creation and investment criteria each program.