EVANSTON, Ill, June 15th, 2015/Manufacturers’ News, Inc./-- Manufacturing employment in Alabama inched up another notch over the past year, reports the 2015 Alabama Manufacturers Register ®, an industrial database and directory published by Manufacturers’ News, Inc. (MNI) Evanston, IL. According to data collected by MNI, Alabama manufacturers added 2,013 jobs from March 2014 to March 2015, a half-percent increase that fell shy of the nation’s 1.7% average increase reported by the Labor Department for the same time period. 

Manufacturers’ News reports Alabama is now home to 5,175 manufacturers employing 296,617 workers. This year’s survey marks the third straight year Alabama has posted a gain in manufacturing employment. 

“With its friendly business environment and low cost of living, Alabama continues to be a draw for new business,” says Tom Dubin, President of the Evanston, IL-based publishing company, which has been surveying industry since 1912. “However, it still faces tough competition from its neighbors, and finding skilled workers has been a challenge.”

According to Manufacturers’ News, the state’s leading industries all posted gains over the year. The transportation equipment sector posted a 1.7% increase and ranks first in the state for industrial employment with 44,362 jobs. Employment in second-ranked food processing also rose 1.7% to 33,798 jobs, while third-ranked fabricated metals posted a 4.6% increase, currently employing 26,555. 

Job growth was also reported in industrial machinery and textiles/apparel, both up 1.7%. Employment in medical instruments/related products rose 1%. 

New manufacturing operations slated to open in Alabama included Airbus, which will establish a new facility in Mobile; Golden State Foods, which plans a meat-processing plant in Opelika; and Polaris, expected to bring 1,700 jobs to Huntsville when it completes a new ATV manufacturing plant. In addition, Lockheed Martin is expanding its facility in Troy; gun manufacturer Remington broke ground on an assembly plant in Huntsville, and Knauf Insulation re-opened its Lanett factory, which had been shuttered since 2010. 

Industries in Alabama posting declines included furniture/fixtures, down 7.2%; chemicals, down 2.7%; electronics, down 2.3%; and printing/publishing, down 1.5%. 

Industrial locations announcing closures included Hillshire’s meat plant in Florence and International Paper’s mill in Courtland. 

Full story: http://www.manufacturersnews.com/news/story/alabamas-manufacturing-sector-posts-another-year-of-employment-gains


According to the database of manufacturers, industrial employment rose the most in Southwest Alabama, with jobs up 3.3% to its current level of 43,534, and climbed 1.2% in Southeast Alabama, to 52,477 workers. Jobs inched up 1% in Northeast Alabama, which ranks as the region with the most manufacturing jobs at 154,660. Manufacturing employment fell 4.8% in Northwest Alabama, with the region home to 45,946 jobs. 

Job gains were recorded for Alabama’s top three industrial cities, says MNI. Birmingham posted a 1.5% manufacturing employment increase, and ranks first in the state for number of workers, with 29,724 jobs. Second-ranked Huntsville posted a 1.7% increase, and currently accounts for 26,456 workers. Third-ranked Mobile accounts for 15,519 up 11% over the year.

Cities posting declines in Alabama included Tuscaloosa, down 2.2%, and accounting for 10,539 of the state’s jobs, and Montgomery, down 1.2%, representing 13,342.