LNG Canada last week shared news of an over $23 billion Final Investment Decision toward the Phase 2 expansion of Canada’s first large-scale LNG export facility. LG Energy Solution and General Motors’ JV Ultium Cells will invest $1 billion to retool and diversify operations at its battery cell manufacturing facility in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Caterpillar plans to invest $1 billion in a new manufacturing facility in Sanford, North Carolina, about 68 miles southwest of Raleigh, to increase production capacity of compact truck loaders and telehandlers.
How can devising a targeted tax incentive and financing structure spur a community’s revitalization through private investment? Take notes from the $1.2 billion being invested in Allentown, Pennsylvania, writes Alexis Elmore.
Profiled in Workforce 2026, YouthBuild Global serves as headquarters to over 340 programs to deliver targeted skills training for in-demand careers within industries including construction, manufacturing and logistics.
Photo courtesy of YouthBuild Global
Insights on skilled trades from the past week include a farewell letter from Jeff Strohl he titled “Unfinished Work,” that marks his retirement as director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW). And the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades released “The State of America’s Skilled Trades: A National Report,” which “examines the forces shaping supply and demand across jobs and regions, to show where workforce systems are working well, where they’re under strain and where focused action can make the biggest difference.”
You can find plenty of business intelligence on the skilled trades and contributions from Jeff Strohl and his colleagues at CEW in Workforce 2026 and other editions of Site Selection’s annual Workforce Guide. Be on the lookout for Workforce 2027 in the new year. Want to place your advertising message there? Here’s where to turn.
Forward-thinking planning for energy-intensive industries, capacity for large industrial users and a focus on grid reliability have stood Mississippi in good stead.
UN Trade and Development’s World Investment Report 2026 shows that global foreign direct investment (FDI) recovered in 2025, but UN Trade & Development says that the recovery remains uneven. “Global FDI rose 6% to $1.6 trillion in 2025, ending two years of decline. Investment in developed economies increased by 11%, while flows to developing economies rose by 2%,” the organization said when the report was released. “More than 80% of global FDI went to the 20 largest host economies. At the same time, a small number of strategic sectors accounted for 44% of the value of global greenfield investment projects in 2025, up from 16% in 2020.”
UN Trade and Development will convene the ninth World Investment Forum in Doha, Qatar, October 25-27 under the theme “Investing in the Future.”
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Photo by Asa Photography courtesy of Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail
In August, the Rails to Trails Conservancy (RTC), the trails, walking and bicycling advocacy organization based in the nation’s capital, announced that Virginia’s Mount Vernon Trail will be the newest member of the organization’s Hall of Fame after receiving 58% of the public vote. “Winding 18.5 miles just outside our nation’s capital, the Mount Vernon Trail offers a unique combination of American history, iconic scenery and wildlife, on a path that links together Theodore Roosevelt Island and George Washington’s estate, Mount Vernon,” RTC stated. The trail was among three nominees voted on by the public between August 5 and August 16. The other nominees were the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail and the Historic Battlefield Trail in Texas.
The Mount Vernon Trail is a key segment in the developing Capital Trails Network, which will connect more than 1,000 miles of trails across D.C., Maryland and Virginia. To date, nearly 53% of the network is completed.
