The Joplin Region
The Joplin Region sits in Missouri’s southwest, at the crossroads of I-44 and I-49 and served by two Class 1 railroads, providing easy shipping to all of North America. Due to the rail and road infrastructure, you can reach most US consumers in less than 12 hours.
Industry strengths in the region include logistics and distribution, advanced manufacturing, food solutions, professional services, alternative energy, and information technology.
The region is known for its skilled labor force, easy transportation access, competitive operating costs and a local government that is pro-business. About 50 percent of the available labor pool has some college and 87 percent have a high school diploma.
As a region four new business sectors are a prime focus for growth – distribution centers, administrative office operations, commercial machinery repair and custom computer programming. These sectors join the regions existing companies focusing on food solutions, transportation, fabricated metals, plastics and packaging technologies and customer service centers.
Major Cities
- Joplin (Pop: 52,518)
- Carthage (15,491)
- Neosho (13,061)
- Webb City (13,165)
- Monett (9,789)
- Aurora (7,412)
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2022
Key Employers
- Able Manufacturing (Joplin)
- Americold Logistics (Carthage)
- Butterball (Carthage)
- Cardinal Scale (Webb City)
- CFI (Joplin)
- Dyno Nobel, Inc. (Carthage)
- EaglePicher Technologies (Joplin)
- EFCO Corp. (Monett)
- General Mills (Joplin)
- George’s Inc (Cassville)
- H.E. Williams (Carthage)
- Jack Henry (Monett)
- La-Z-Boy (Neosho)
- Leggett & Platt (Carthage)
- Nutra-Blend (Neosho)
- Regal Rexnord Climate Solutions (Cassville)
- Schaeffler Group USA (Joplin)
- Schreiber Foods (Carthage/Monett)
- Scholastic (Neosho)
- Simmons Foods (Southwest City/Pineville)
- Tyson Foods (Monett)
![WorkforceData[2]](/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/WorkforceData2.png)
Sites and Buildings
![Buildings[2]](/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Buildings2.png)
The work ethic here is really good. People come in and work hard. They’re used to working hard before we hire them.