A report looking at major investment projects around the country shows that companies are ramping up investment in new facilities and jobs and Pennsylvania is among the top destinations for that investment. The 2012 US Investment Monitor by Ernst & Young LLP examined five thousand business investments and more than 336,000 jobs created in 2011.

The document shows states with lucrative energy sectors like Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Texas are doing especially well. The average capital investment per announced job in 2011 was $405,000 – nearly $200,000 more than the average in 2010. Andrew Phillips, Senior Manager in the Quantitative Economics and Statistics Group at Ernst & Young said they are looking at major business announcments of investments and job creation in new business facilities when they compile their list of booming states.

"And we're looking at specific types of facilities like headquarters, manufacturing facilities, distribution centers, R&D (research and development) centers and other types of locations that have a choice in which state to locate in," said Phillips.

Pennsylvania was ranked second behind Louisiana in mobile capital investment ($12.5 billion), and second behind Texas in mobile project jobs (27,100). Phillips said the state also did well when it came to attracting manufacturers, "if you think about the location choices manufacturers have - they're fairly broad, they can locate almost anywhere and ship their products - that's a fairly competative industry to try to attract to the state."

He said on average, Pennsylvania did twice as well as other states.

The complete report can be found at www.ey.com/us/salt