created last year in Arizona

Inside Tucson Business report

Arizona saw 9,600 new "high-wage, high-value" jobs created in the state during fiscal year 2005, thanks 37 companies that either expanded or moved into the state, according to an announcement Thursday from Gov. Janet Napolitano.

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Average salary for the new jobs is $41,500.

The value of the capital investment by the 37 companies totaled nearly $660 million.

Three Southern Arizona companies were cited: Advanced Ceramics Research, which expanded its Tucson plant; Bobcat Industries, which relocated its testing and training operations to Sahuarita; and Republic Plastics, which opened a manufacturing plant in San Manuel.

In the Phoenix area, the companies contributing to the increase were Verizon, which added 1,200 jobs in Chandler; eBay, which opened a location in Phoenix; Monster.com's parent company, which established its western headquarters in Tempe; Norwegian Cruise Lines, which located a sales center in Mesa; and Tomcar, which moved from Israel to Phoenix.

Elsewhere around the state, Bull Moose Tube and Plastic Technology opened operations in Casa Grande, Machine Solutions expanded its Flagstaff operations, Wal-Mart opened a distribution center in Kingman, Aqua Glass moved to Kingman, Associated Materials and Northwestern Industries both moved to Yuma, and Northeast Industrial opened in Camp Verde.

"We've been saying for years that economic development requires an integrated approach that assists communities in building their capacity to attract good jobs," Napolitano said in a statement.

According to the announcement, many of the companies see advantage in Arizona's business incentives. As an example, Republic Plastics in San Manuel was awarded an Arizona Department of Commerce Job Training grant in the amount of $193,182 for hiring and training 25 new employees. Republic Plastics is also pre-qualified for an Enterprise Zone tax credit, which offers significant property tax and corporate income tax savings. Further, Pinal County plans to submit an application to obtain funds from the Economic Strength Project program at Commerce to fund upgrading the public road connecting Republic Plastics' new facility to Reddington Road.

The state's fiscal year was from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005.