Which one of the candidates for governor strikes you as being more likely to be in the office on the weekend, sweating over how to get more people to work in North Carolina?

Ashley Furniture will locate a new manufacturing and distribution facility in Davie County, creating 550 jobs and investing $80 million in land, buildings, machinery and equipment over the next five years, according to a state release.

The total payroll for the new jobs will be about  $15.5 million once the project is finished. That's an average of about $28,180 per job.

Ashley is eligible to receive as much as $3.19 million in grant money from the state if the company meets performance targets during the next 10 years. The company was also given a grant of up to $825,000 from the state's One North Carolina fund, which helps recruit business to the state through matched local incentives.

"As we see Ashley's global demand for its products increase, Ashley continues to make long-term investments in all of its facilities as well as the continued education of all employees to meet consumer demand," said Todd Wanek, Ashley's CEO.

Ashley has about 12,000 employees in the United States and has manufacturing facilities in Wisconsin, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and California and a distribution center in Florida. In business since 1945, Ashley has brought its products to High Point Market for nearly 40 years.

BRP, the maker of Sea-Doo brand jet skis and boats, will expand its operations in Spruce Pine and add 70 jobs, according to a release. 

BRP, which stands for Bombardier Recreational Products Inc., will invest $1.1 million in the area during the next three years. The average annual wage for the new jobs will be $37,660 plus benefits. The average annual wage for Mitchell County, where Spruce Pine is located, is $30,160.

The company employs more than 160 people at its Spruce Pine facility, which makes aluminum castings as well as provides foam models for outside customers in the transportation, construction and alternative energy industries.

"BRP products are the best in the world, and many of our engine components are built right here in North Carolina," said Frank Bailey, Director of Powertrain US for BRP. "We look forward to expanding our lost foam casting businesses and bringing this excellence to other industries and markets."

BRP is privately held and is the manufacturer of other motorized recreational vehicles and products such as Can-Am all-terrain vehicles and Rotax engines.

Claim: “The One N.C. Fund has created 60,000 jobs and produced $11 billion worth of investments since its inception.”

Speaker: Walter Dalton at Democratic gubernatorial debate Monday

Claim: "The net effect is no new jobs. We have the same number of jobs we did a dozen of years ago and a million more people."

Speaker: Bill Faison at Democratic gubernatorial debate Monday

Stanley Furniture announced Monday that it will expand its presence in High Point and create 42 jobs over the next three years.

The company, which has offices in High Point and Stanleytown, Va., is investing $4 million to consolidate its showroom and two corporate offices into a new High Point facility.

Stanley will receive a $335,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund if it meets hiring and investment goals.

The company expects the payroll for the new jobs will be more than $2.5 million, which works out to an average annual salary of just under $60,000

Stanley makes high-end furniture for the residential market. It makes furniture for adults under the Stanley brand and children's furniture under the Young American brand.

Young America furniture is manufactured at the company's plant in Robbinsville, which employs more than 350 people.

A Chicago metal processor announced Monday that it will expand its facility in Wayne County and create 44 jobs over the next three years.

Joseph Ryerson & Sons plans to invest $3 million to move into a second building that will be part of its fabrication facility in Pikeville, about 60 miles southeast of Raleigh.

The company will receive a $100,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund if it meets hiring and investment goals.

The new jobs will pay an average wage of $33,540. The Wayne County average is $29,848.

Ryerson, which has service centers in Charlotte, Greensboro and Youngsville, processes and distributes various metals, including stainless and carbon steel, aluminum products, brass and copper.

It sells the metals in sheets, coils and other shapes to customers.

Ryerson also makes parts for rail cars, heavy equipment, agricultural equipment, wind turbines and other industries. 

A Swedish medical technology company announced today that it will locate its North American headquarters in Morrisville and create 45 jobs over the next three years.

Aerocrine, which focuses on improving the treatment of patients with airway diseases such as asthma, also plans to invest $219,000 in Wake County.

Aerocrine will receive a $50,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund if it meets investment and hiring goals.

The average salary for the new positions will be $69,000, plus benefits. The Wake County average is $44,980.

AW North Carolina, which makes transmissions for Toyotas, announced today that it will invest $14 million in its Durham facility and add as many as 250 jobs over the next year.

The expansion comes a little less than two years after AW announced in April 2010 a $100 million expansion that was to create as many of 360 jobs over two years.

The company said today that the $100 million expansion is now complete, and that the new jobs and investment are in addition to the earlier project.

AW now employs 1,500 full-time and temporary workers at its Durham facility. The company is a subsidiary of Japan’s Aisin AW.

AT&T, the world's largest communications company, announced it would build a data center in Kings Mountain, creating 100 full-time jobs in the process and investing more than $200 million to construct the facility.

AT&T will fill more than 1,000 construction-related jobs  through 2013 needed to complete the data center, which is expected to open in 2014.

The data center is expected to create an economic impact - which includes spending on annual goods and services to support the center's operations - of $935 million during 10 years.

Read more about the data center here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/22/3035357/gov-bev-perdue-to-make-jobs-announcement.html