By
Associated Press
.
Published: Fri, March 21, 2008 - 7:48 am
Last Updated: Thu, July 31, 2008 - 1:11 am
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - Alabama's port city lost some 16,000 jobs inthe late 1960s when the government closed Brookley Air Force base.
But with a new 35-story skyscraper, its first black mayor and plans
for a German steelmaker to locate a huge plant nearby, Mobile's
economy is taking off again and could be fueled even more by an
assembly plant for Air Force refueling tankers.
Civic leaders are upbeat about the prospect of the city becoming
a jobs magnet.
Tallying up the new and expanding industries in aerospace,
steel, shipping, shipbuilding and plans for an auto-racing track,
Semoon Chang, an economist at the University of South Alabama, said
some 10,000 jobs could be created in the next several years, with a
ripple effect.
The port has been ranked by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as
the 10th largest U.S. port in its 2006 port cargo tonnage by volume
rankings - about 60 million tons - moving up a notch from its 2005
position with about 57 million tons.
A new National Cancer Institute also will employ more than 600,
creating thousands of physician and scientist positions.
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