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DeWalt Corporation is situated at the Southern end of the dynamic and rapidly changing San Joaquin Valley. With room to grow, the under-developed Southern San Joaquin Valley is poised for population increase to expand the labor force. In recent years the County has made significant improvements in key economic and social areas such as growth in average weekly wages. Bakersfield, the largest city in Kern County, is strategically located, a four hour drive to 90% of the State of California’s population centers, either North or South. Labor statistics reveal an employment rebound beginning in 2009 and continuing through 2013. Lower business costs, the availability of land, and relatively lower cost of living factors also add to the Southern San Joaquin valleys attractiveness and competitive advantage in attracting industry, and relationally, to DeWalt Corporation in support of industry driven land planning, land entitlement, land division and land development.
Head quartered in Bakersfield, DeWalt Corporation is encouraged that Kern’s economy is based on the diverse assets of agriculture, energy (oil, wind, solar, bio-mass) and natural resources, aerospace, healthcare, and transportation and warehousing services. This economic diversification makes for a recession proof economy. Further, the agricultural sector has seen world wide acceptance and demand for its products resulting in the need to develop micro sectors like Value-Added Agriculture, Processing, Packaging and intelligent improvement to the Transportation and Logistics sectors. Aerospace potential is driven by the emergence of private sector space-travel activities as well as a highly-skilled workforce in East Kern, particularly in aerospace engineering, whose training can be applied in new aerospace manufacturing. Nearly all of the economic sectors thriving in Southern San Joaquin Valley depend on land and land development, which constitutes opportunity for DeWalt Corporation’s professional service.
Some recent accolades for the Kern County Metro area include:
- Best Performing Metro in CA, AZ, and NV (Milken Institute, December 2011)
- Top 20 Strongest-Recovering Areas in U.S. (Brookings Institution, June 2012)
- #1 County (Kern) for Manufacturing Jobs’ Growth (Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2012)
- Ranked #1 Metro area for employment growth (Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 2012)
- Kern 7th Most Improved US Metro Economy (On Numbers Economic Index)
- Bakersfield Top CA Metro With Largest Housing Gains Through Last Half of the 2013(Clear Capital Real Estate Data)
- Kern 2nd Highest Paying Area in Central Valley (On Numbers Economic Index)
- Kern Metro No. 1 in US NAFTA Trade (Brookings Institution, November 2013)
- Kern up 47 places on US Economic Vitality Ranking (On Numbers Economic Index)