Boeing Awarded Flag of Freedom from Gov. Nixon for Show-Me Heroes Program

Gov. Jay Nixon joined Leanne Caret, president and CEO, Boeing Defense, Space & Security, in St. Louis to present the company with a Flag of Freedom award, recognizing the company’s commitment to hiring veterans through Missouri’s Show-Me Heroes program.

“The world wants what Missouri makes, including state-of-the art aerospace products built by hardworking men and women, many of whom have served our country in uniform,” Gov. Nixon said. “Employers know that if they want someone who is hard working and highly skilled – hire a veteran. Through the Show-Me Heroes program, employers like Boeing are honoring our service men and women while helping Missouri become a national leader in manufacturing growth.”

The Show-Me Heroes program, established by Gov. Nixon in January 2010, is designed to connect military veterans with job opportunities when they return home from service. Administered by the Missouri Division of Workforce Development, Show-Me Heroes showcases Missouri businesses that are willing and eager to hire veterans.

“Boeing values veterans because they bring leadership, integrity, and critical skills that are unique to their military experience,” Caret said. “More than 21,000 military service members are employed by Boeing, and we are fortunate to have them continue their service in the private sector as a part of our team.”

Businesses participating in the Show-Me Heroes program sign a pledge to ramp up efforts to reach out to, recruit, and interview veterans for job openings at their business. To date, more than 4,880 Missouri businesses have taken the Show-Me Heroes pledge and have reported hiring 8,315 highly-skilled, highly-trained job seekers who have served in the military.

If businesses hire one or more veterans or service members through the program, they can be nominated to receive the Flag of Freedom Award. The award consists of a plaque featuring an American flag patch from the combat uniform of a member of the Missouri National Guard that was worn while that Citizen-Soldier or Airman was deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Gov. Nixon has made strengthening Missouri’s once-struggling manufacturing sector a top priority; efforts that have resulted in Missouri recently leading the Midwest in manufacturing growth.

For the third consecutive month, the Mid-America Business Conditions Index survey recently reported that the state’s Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) of 52.3 is the highest index compared to Midwestern states west of the Mississippi. A state’s PMI measures the economic health of the manufacturing sector using a combination of factors like new orders, production, supplier delivery times, backlogs, inventories, prices, employment, import orders and export. Any PMI figure over 50 represents an expansion in the manufacturing sector.

Additionally, data released by the U.S. Census Bureau and analyzed by the Kauffman Foundation show that there were 1,293 more businesses created in Missouri in 2013 (the most recent year for which data is available) than in 2012, an increase of more than 16 percent.  Over the same time period, 39 states saw a decrease in new business creation. Of the states that did see an increase in the number of new businesses, Missouri outperformed them dramatically – experiencing a bigger growth in new business creation than all ten of those states combined.

Since 2010, Missouri employers have created more than 100,000 jobs, cutting the unemployment rate in half (4.5 percent in June 2016) and helping to keep it below the national average for the past two years.

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