Manufacturing continues its comeback across the country, and the regions leading its revival include many small to medium-sized Cities, including those located in surburban areas of larger cities.
The industrial centers of the past – New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles – have shed hundreds of thousands of jobs since their heyday, while cities in the Sunbelt, Rustbelt and beyond are picking them up. The reasons for this vary, from strict environmental laws and stronger unions in large cities to cheaper land and richer resources elsewhere.
Cities that are building the most momentum in manufacturing are those that are paying attention to workforce development and forging training partnerships between industrial employers and local colleges and vocational schools. With baby boomers exiting the factory floor in droves, a fresh crop of skilled workers to take their place is a desirable asset for any community.
Return of the Rust Belt
As manufacturing has resurged over the past five years, adding some 855,000 new jobs, one beneficiary has been the Great Lakes states that relied on the industry so heavily before. This is true of Michigan in particular, which has already recovered about 40 percent of the Manufacturing Jobs it lost during the Recession. The Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia area leads the nation in cities generating the most new manufacturing jobs, according to a list compiled by economist Joel Kotkin. Since 2009, the area has seen 31 percent rise in industrial jobs, driven in part by the growing demand in the auto industry.
Talent has also accelerated this growth. Along with skilled production workers, the area is home to the second largest concentration of engineers in the nation, behind only Silicon Valley. This dynamic is also at work in suburban areas surrounding Detroit, especially the Warren-Troy-Farmington area, where manufacturing employment is also up over 30 percent since 2009, putting it second among metros creating new manufacturing jobs. Among the mid-sized cities, Toledo, Ohio, located just 60 miles outside of Detroit, is a superstar, with a 17 percent jump in industrial employment since 2009.
Another Michigan city drawing a record number of industrial jobs is Grand Rapids-Wyoming, a longtime furniture-making hub where one in five people are employed in manufacturing. The region’s 27-percent rebound in the industry post-Recession puts it third among cities leading the manufacturing revival.
Rising Southern Hubs
Southeastern regions also ranked highly among cities creating manufacturing jobs, especially those with foreign direct investment. According to the Brookings Institution, the South now has the highest number of workers employed in advanced industries, which represent higher-paying, more technically-oriented areas of factory work.
The Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro, Tenn., area leads the pack, ranking fourth on the list with a 23.9 percent jump in manufacturing employment since 2009. Global manufacturers are drawn to the Nashville area’s central location, pro-business environment and low taxes as well as its skilled workforce. Japanese-owned firm, including Nissan and Bridgestone, have continued to boost production in the area, especially in Rutherford County, where Nissan is developing a supplier park in Smyrna expected to create more than 1,000 jobs.
Domestic auto makers are also flocking to the Southeast. Ford employs some 14,000 in Louisville, which ranks No. 7 among top MSAs with manufacturing growth. South Carolina is another hotbed for industrial investment. Both Columbia and Charleston have seen their industrial workforces grow by more than 20 percent post-Recession, thanks to investment by BMW as well as Boeing and its aerospace suppliers.
Growth Gushers
Manufacturing is also thriving in energy-rich regions like Oklahoma City and Houston. Both of these areas have benefited from the oil and gas boom over the past few years and its ripple effect on investment among downstream industries such as refining and petrochemicals.
Houston now boasts the third largest concentration of manufacturing jobs in the nation, and it ranks among the nation’s top 10 metros in its number of engineers per capita, making it the “technological leader” of the material economy, according to Kotkin. Its production prowess and growth extends to its suburban areas like Sugarland in neighboring Fort Bend County.
As rising wages overseas and the need for faster response to customer demand and the changing marketplace continues to push more manufacturing production to the U.S., regions across the U.S. are positioning themselves to compete. What is your region doing to grow its industrial sector? How can cities take the lead in preparing the local manufacturing workforce with the skills needed by industry? Please share your thoughts below.
