Recent job announcements from the state Depaartment of Economic Development include:
May 31 – About 300 jobs in a distribution and warehouse operation to be in Gwinnett County by online clothing marketplace ThredUP
May 19 – About 110 jobs in a logistics and distribution center in Laurens County by Polymer Logistics
May 18 – More than 200 jobs, mostly software engineering positions, in a planned facility in Atlanta by Keysight Technologies
May 10 — More than 1,000 jobs at a new plant for Sparta Industries, a manufacturer of HVAC duct liner insulation, at the former Rheem Manufacturing building in Milledgeville
May 9 – More than 500 jobs at a 1 million-square-foot distribution center in Butts and Spalding Counties by Dollar General
April 28 – About 100 jobs at a new industrial facility in Walton County for Flexo Converters USA, a manufacturer and distributor of retail shopping bags
April 21 – About 200 jobs at an expansion of vinyl flooring operations for flooring giant Mohawk Industries in Dalton-Whitfield County
General Electric plans a 250-person digital operations center in Atlanta, officials announced Thursday.
The company will make a $3 million investment in the new center, which will employ a range of engineers, techies, operations and service desk staff, according to statements by state and GE officials.
The new center is part of the company’s efforts to centralize “digital capabilities from across GE in a single organization,” the announcement said.
“These new positions will join the growing IT organization within GE Digital that is helping GE become the premier digital industrial company,” said Chris Drumgoole, vice president and chief technology officer of GE.
No start date for the new center was given, and a GE spokeswoman said the company is not ready yet to talk about where it will be located.
One potential location is Midtown Atlanta, which has become a hive of tech company offices, and Georgia Tech and developer Portman recently announced plans for a new phase of Technology Square next to the Tech campus. It is to include a 21-story tower to be called Coda, and the planned completion date is 2019.
In an apparently parallel announcement, GE and the governor of Rhode Island today also announced plans for a high-tech office in that state. The office could employ “hundreds of people,” according to an Associated Press report.
Early this year, the huge company announced plans to shift its headquarters from Connecticut to Boston. Atlanta was among many cities that made a pitch for the headquarters.
In his statement Thursday, Drumgoole praised “the top talent in Atlanta,” but also “inclusive business environment across the state.”
Gov. Nathan Deal, whose office released the news about GE’s plans, this spring vetoed a controversial “religious liberty” bill that critics said potentially opened the door to discrimination against gays and could hurt business recruitment.
GE was among companies that publicly opposed the law.
The company already has substantial operations in the area, with about 2,700 employees in metro Atlanta.
