Mobile Ready For Change

After losing thousands of jobs when Brookley Field closed in the late 1960's, industry in the Port City is booming thanks to recent development.

By: WKRG Staff | WKRG-TV
Published: March 21, 2008

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - Alabama's port city lost some 16,000 jobs in
the 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.

Mobile Ready For Change

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