Manufacturing Jobs Still Low, but Profits Improving

Over the past year one of the hottest topics in the manufacturing industry has been the possibility of American manufacturing making a comeback. Companies have promised to make additional manufacturing jobs available, and some company executives have indicated that they plan to reshore their company's manufacturing back to the US. However, the question remains: has US manufacturing really made a comeback over the past year?

According to an article posted earlier this month on BusinessInsider.com, there hasn't been much of a revival in manufacturing jobs, but the US manufacturing industry has become profitable. Overall, there has been a modest increase in employment from 2009 to 2013 that has helped the industry's improvement margins.

While the manufacturing industry hasn't made a quick comeback, manufacturing jobs are slowly becoming available. According to a recent article on ShopFloor.org, the regional and state employment numbers, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, indicated that Wisconsin created the most new manufacturing jobs in October. Overall, 6,000 new manufacturing jobs were added in Wisconsin, but according to Abdur Chowdhury, an economics professor at Marquette University, the state's job growth in the manufacturing sector is still lacking. Unfortunately, in order for the state to fully recover from the recession, more factory jobs need to be added. In Wisconsin, the manufacturing sector usually provides jobs with decent pay, especially for the three-quarters of the state's workers who don't have a four-year college degree.

Even though factory jobs haven't been added as fast as many people had hoped, several other states have seen steady employment increases in the manufacturing industry. Michigan has seen the fastest job growth—12,900 manufacturing jobs have been added throughout Michigan since the beginning of the year. The state has also added the largest amount of manufacturing jobs—98,700—since the end of the recession. Texas, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin are right behind Michigan; these states have added between 39,000 and 61,700 manufacturing jobs since the recession ended.

The steady increase in manufacturing jobs that has been seen in most states is still a good indicator that the manufacturing industry is making a comeback. According to Kelly Smith, a spokesperson for the global investment firm Allianz, manufacturing firms have rebuilt a solid financial footing, which sets them up for future growth. The gains that manufacturing companies are seeing, which are partly driven by lower energy costs, reduced labor costs, and a stronger US dollar, could translate into more hiring. In fact, Boston Consulting Group recently suggested that increased exports, which are partly helped by the manufacturing industry, could add an additional five million jobs by 2020.

While people throughout the manufacturing industry who are still waiting for massive amounts of jobs to become available may not think so, news that overall the industry is showing a profit is good news. As companies rebuild their financial footholds, production will continue to increase, and manufacturing jobs will continue to become available.

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