GREENSBORO, N.C. — Each one of the future workers at the Toyota battery plant at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite will need a real estate agent, a clerk to help them down at the grocery store, someone to deliver their mail, a doctor at the hospital, a police officer to patrol their street, a chef at a local restaurant and a teacher for their kids. In fact, a formula from the Economic Policy Institute reveals for every 100 durable manufacturing positions created, there are also 744.1 other indirect jobs created. So the megasite's 1,750 jobs would really be more than 14,000 new jobs.
You don't just have to take the economists for their words. You can see that really happened when South Carolina got a BMW plant. Robert Burton got a job building the plant. He said that wasn't the only new construction.
"More houses being built. More people. more stores," he said.
Stores like Kristi and Joe Marbry's. They moved to South Carolina from Tennessee after the plant was announced.
"For a retail store they thought I'd lost my mind," Kristi said.
They said their boutique has done better each year they've been open.
Also doing better are the folks in Pontotoc County Mississippi, where Toyota built a plant in 2007. Their Chamber of Commerce President, Lisa Bryant, said the plant is still creating jobs more than a decade later.
"If you're a builder start building houses. If you're a business, start expanding. Get ready," said Bryant. "It takes 10 to 15 years before you really start seeing a lot of growth and changes."
Since then the county's unemployment rate has gone from 7.8% down to 3.1% today. People living there are making more money too. The middle-of-the-road income is up more than $10,000.
"That's good for everybody because not everybody is drawing good salaries. Families are about to build bigger houses, buy more product. Now our downtown area here is booming. We have boutiques and restaurants and things that are thriving because we've got people here."
Leaders in the Triad hope the new Toyota plant will also be a driving force for change in our economy.