The recession is over. At the midyear point of 2013, JAXUSA Partnership, a division of the JAX Chamber, and its partners have announced plans for at least 2,635 new jobs so far this year.

The number of new jobs announced by JAXUSA during the first half of 2013 is more than any first half of the year figure since 2006, before the recession struck. It is nearly as many jobs as were announced in 2012 and more than announced in all of 2011.

If the rate were to continue, JAXUSA Partnership and its partners would announce more jobs this year than in some time – and possibly in the past decade.

“JAXUSA has been working with companies and our partners at the city of Jacksonville and throughout the region, and these projects are coming to fruition at a rapid pace,” said JAXUSA Partnership Chair John Delaney, who is president of the University of North Florida.

Job growth is helping to improve the region’s unemployment rate. The May 2013 unemployment rate in the Jacksonville area was 6.5 percent, down from 8.2 percent in May 2012.

“Northeast Florida has entered a new era of job creation and broad-based economic opportunity,” said JAX Chamber President and CEO Daniel Davis.

Companies are selecting Jacksonville for new or expanded operations. The range of projects includes headquarters, aviation/aerospace, financial services, distribution/logistics and health and life sciences. The announcements include many of the region’s targeted industries.

Announcements since January 2013 about planned new jobs in the Northeast Florida region include:

Company-Industry/No. of Planned New Jobs

• Bank of America-Financial services/200
• Body Central-Headquarters/75
• Coastal Cloud-Headquarters/100
• Cory’s Thunder-Headquarters/35
• Deutsche Bank-Financial services/300
• Digital Risk-Financial services/300
• Embraer-Aviation/aerospace/80
• Energy Intelligence Worldwide-Headquarters/100
• FedEx-Dist/Logistics/150
• Hoegh Autoliners-Dist/Logistics 20
• MMC America Inc.-Health & Life Sciences/20
• Northrop Grumman-Aviation/aerospace/400
• Railex-Dist/Logistics/310
• SunGard Relius Business Sys.-Financial services/170
• Total Quality Logistics-Dist/Logistics/75
• United Health Group-Medical/300

 “We are on track to have our most successful year in more than a decade,” said JAXUSA Partnership President Jerry Mallot. “These projects are creating a sense of excitement in the community. We will continue to focus on job growth and economic development for the benefit of the community.”