Georgia — 8+ to 12 Million Population CategoryE-commerce is delivering prosperity to Silver Shovel winner Georgia. Online fashion and beauty retailer ASOS picked Union City for a 1,600-job fulfillment center, while Amazon added to its list of distribution centers in Georgia, adding 1,000 jobs. Meanwhile, Luxottica Group’s eyewear distribution center also announced a 1,000-job expansion plan.

Business and consumer services are part of the good news, too. Computer Generated Solutions said it would create about 850 call center jobs in a Norcross expansion. Switch unveiled a data center plan in the Atlanta area with a few dozen jobs but a $1 billion price tag. Accenture’s investment in Atlanta is much smaller from a dollar perspective, but will yield nearly 900 jobs. Manufacturing announcements include aircraft engine building at Pratt and Whitney, expanding in Columbus, plus the manufacture of pet foods and paper products elsewhere.

Michigan — 8+ to 12 Million Population CategoryNo surprise that the automotive sector helped Michigan earn a Silver Shovel designation. Four of its top 10 projects from 2017 related to auto manufacturing, including a Ford expansion at the Flat Rock assembly where Mustangs and Continentals are made, and an expansion at the Ford transmission plant in Livonia. Lear Corp. and Autoliv are auto suppliers expanding in Michigan. Credit Acceptance Corp. may be a financial services company, but its headquarters expansion in Southfield owes its existence to automotive loans.

Plenty of activity can be found in other sectors, too. Amazon, in fact, landed two announcements on the top 10 list, including a 1,600-job fulfillment center in Romulus and a thousand-job fulfillment center in Shelby. Centria Healthcare, meanwhile, picked Farmington Hills for a new headquarters facility with room to hire 1,200 people.

Ohio — 8+ to 12 Million Population CategorySilver Shovel winner Ohio’s 2017 projects represent diverse economic sectors — from manufacturing to distribution to technology to financial services. Topping the list was a 2,000-job Amazon fulfillment center in North Randall, rising from the site of a closed shopping mall. Hundreds more jobs were promised in the financial services sector. Huntington National Bank’s growth in its hometown of Columbus brought a pledge of nearly 400 jobs, plus 900 new insurance jobs at a Highland Heights project planned by Progressive Casualty Insurance Co.

Also adding to Ohio’s Silver Shovel year was the announcement that Ensemble Health Partners would hire as many as 1,100 at a facility in Blue Ash involved in helping healthcare providers collect patient service revenue. Tech manufacturer Silfex added plans for a Springfield development, while Nestle USA announced that as part of a headquarters move from California to Virginia, it would also move about 300 technical, supply chain, and production jobs to its Ohio operation in Solon. Other growth came in such industries as paperboard, iron and steel, plus 100 jobs at a $750 million Facebook data center in New Albany, near Columbus.

Virginia — 8+ to 12 Million Population CategoryHeadquarters moves and expansions helped Virginia earn its Silver Shovel. Changes in the food industry led Nestle USA to announce plans for a headquarters move from the West Coast to Arlington County, Va., closer to the bulk of its U.S. factories and customers. Favor TechConsulting moved to larger quarters in Fairfax County and in the process made room to add up to 1,200 new jobs over the next five years. Plumbing wholesaler Ferguson is expanding its Newport News headquarters, and similar plans were announced in Virginia Beach by LifeNet Health, involved in organ procurement and tissue processing.

From a jobs perspective, the biggest news came from Frederick County, where Navy Federal Credit Union announced it would grow its operations center and add approximately 1,400 new jobs. Two of the world’s biggest tech companies, Facebook and Google, both chose Virginia for new data centers. Virginia-based healthcare services company Owens & Minor shared plans for a new customer engagement center in Richmond, and Altec Industries — which makes aerial lift trucks for the utility and telecom industries — will add 180 jobs in an expansion in Botetourt County.

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 2017 (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 were awarded Area Development’s 2018 Gold Shovels in five population categories: 12+ million, 8+ to 12 million, 5+ to 8 million, 3+ to 5 million, and fewer than 3 million. Runners-up in each of these population categories were awarded 2018 Silver Shovels.