For the second time in three years, Tennessee has topped IBM’s Global Location Trends report. The annual report from the IBM Institute for Business Value measures the number of jobs created or committed via foreign direct investment (FDI) in each state during the 2015 calendar year.
The Volunteer State is home to roughly 920 foreign-based establishments that have invested more than $33.3 billion in capital. The state’s top 10 countries for FDI include Japan, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Italy, France, Switzerland, Sweden and China.
Tennessee ranked No. 1 in IBM’s 2014 Global Location Trends Report, and No. 4 in last year’s list. Achieving the No. 1 ranking again this year is a testament to the emphasis we’ve placed on attracting FDI, as well as our state’s strong position in the global economy.
Middle Tennessee has long been a top choice for investments from top Japanese employers such as Nissan and Bridgestone, but in recent years, we’ve begun to attract more investment from all over the world, including Italy, China and Korea. In 2015, 28 percent of new job creation in our region resulted from FDI, and foreign-owned companies employed nearly 49,000 people at more than 300 office locations throughout our region. Middle Tennessee accounted for 42 percent of the state’s 2015 FDI total.
