(Ponte Vedra Beach, FL) - As THE PLAYERS Championship’s first round wound down Thursday afternoon, Governor Rick Scott and leaders in government and business from across the state gathered at TPC Sawgrass Stadium Village to showcase St. Johns County as an area that is ready and open for business.

May 7, 2012, St. Johns, FL – An early stage medical device company in the midst of launching groundbreaking technology has chosen St. Johns County as its corporate headquarters, bringing a wealth of business expertise and growth opportunity along with it.

Recommendations designed to grow Northeast Florida’s economy are outlined in the Innovate Northeast Florida Target Industry Implementation Plan, a five-year community economic development strategic plan, recently released by the Northeast Florida Regional Council and JAXUSA Regional Economic Development Partnership. Presented during a regional economic development forum, the plan makes recommendations to grow the region’s target industries – advanced manufacturing, aviation, financial services, health and life sciences, information technology and logistics.  Business development, marketing, talent and entrepreneurship initiatives for the next five years will focus on the business clusters detailed in the plan. 

German firm 2G Cenergy Power Systems to open manufacturing plant here. The German company that builds clean energy power generation systems will open a U.S. manufacturing plant in St. Augustine, creating 125 jobs with an average salary of $50,000.

By JENNIFER EDWARDS, The St. Augustine Record

A leading national economist on Wednesday had good news for St. Johns County: The unemployment rate is decreasing, personal income here is higher than metro and state averages, and housing starts will likely increase soon.

Mark Vitner, Wells Fargo managing director and senior economist, told a packed house at World Golf Village's Renaissance Resort and Convention Center that unemployment decreased in St. Johns County by 2.3 percentage points from January to June, when the numbers showed a seasonally adjusted rate of 7.6 percent.