In The Aftermath of Aerojet Job Loss Debacle, Region Business Announces Job Retention Initiative

April 14, 2017 | 

In the aftermath of this week's announcement that Aerojet would be relocating over 1,100 jobs from its Rancho Cordova production facility, Sacramento-based Region Business has announced it will broaden its mission to including job retention.  

In their press release issued this morning, Region Business characterized this week's job losses at Aerojet and yesterday's announcement by Advanced Call Center Technologies that they would eliminate over 100 call center jobs in Sacramento as "a week of hemorrhaging jobs."

In their announcement, Region Business said the following:

“We respect the business decisions made by Aerojet and  LLC and appreciate the investments they made in our community. But these decisions are powerful reminders that we as a community must refocus economic efforts onto retaining our existing employers.

When the announcements came, everybody asked the question “whose fault is it?” The answer is all of us. It exposed a significant gap in our economic development community because no organization is focused on championing business retention.

Today the Sacramento Region Business Association is announcing that we will broaden our mission from being a business advocacy association to taking on the task of business retention because no one is doing it, and someone needs to fill the void. Our track record of creating thousands of new jobs is clear. Now we will harness that same momentum towards saving the jobs we already have.”

With this job-retention announcement, Region Businesses adds a new dimension in Sacramento regional economic development efforts. The quasi-public Greater Sacramento Economic Council (GSEC), which charges its 16 cities and six counties members including Elk Grove an annual fee of 39-cents per residence, has been tapped to recruit major employers to the area.

Led by President and Chief Executive Officer Barry Broome the GSEC's primary mission is to recruit new employers and industries to the region. Although Broome has maintained a high personal media profile, the group has no notable successes in recruiting major employers or new industries to the region.