Monday’s big news was that Micron Technology has finally decided that Boise is worthy of a new fabrication plant.

It was welcome news and something I hope become a reality.

And as I expected, the news was greeted as a positive for the economy by state and local leaders and a sign that things aren’t as bad as the national headlines make them out to be.

Granted it is good news, but we have to put it into context. The new plant still isn’t a lock.

Micron said it doesn’t have a timeline for building, and the expansion will be tied to market conditions and other economic factors.

It also won’t lead to any more jobs, but rather help protect the existing jobs.

If anything the news of the new plant only confirms what I’ve been saying all along. We can’t count on Micron providing the growth in new jobs our economy needs.

I hope that the plant becomes a reality because it’s important that we protect the 9,000 jobs Micron has left, but this isn’t going to erase the fact that the company’s 1,100 or more jobs cut since June are probably never coming back.

It also doesn’t erase the fact that Micron is in a tough spot. It is still struggling with prices for its memory products and losing money. Its stock also continues to struggle.

I applaud the executives for trying to keep jobs in Boise, but I’ll be interested to see how investors react to a decision to build a new plant in Boise. I fear that many investors would have preferred Micron to build overseas.

One thing I’ve learned from covering large companies is that most executives have good intentions when they make announcements. But those announcements can change dramatically just a few year or months later.

I started covering Idaho’s big companies in 2001 and I would have never predicted that a few short years later companies like Albertsons would have been chopped up and sold or that Washington Group would become a division of a California company.

I sincerely hope that Micron can keep its word. So let's pause and celebrate this brief respite from a wave of bad news, but then we need to get back to work and figure out what industries are going to drive Idaho’s economy in the future.