Outlook on Manufacturing Positive, Still Short of Pre-Recession Levels

All indications show the manufacturing sector is improving in Arkansas, but there is still a ways to go before it reaches the pre-recession levels.

Nearly 20,000 jobs were lost in the state during the Great Recession and the Mid-America Business Conditions Index says only 1,200 of those jobs have been regained.

“Our surveys of businesses in Arkansas indicate the state’s manufacturing employment will not return to pre-recession levels until beyond 2015,” Ernie Goss, director of Creighton University’s Economic Forecasting Group, said in a news release. 

Still, two other reports show things are at least moving in the right direction. A quarterly state profile from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released Dec. 8 showed manufacturing employment growth up 2.1 percent in the third quarter. That followed a 1.4 percent growth in the second quarter. 

Meanwhile, data gathered by Manufactures’ News Inc. of Evanston, Illinois, showed Arkansas added 645 industrial jobs between September 2013 and September 2014. MNI said it was the first year the state posted a gain in industrial employment since the recession.

“Arkansas’ low business costs and abundant natural resources have definitely contributed to this year’s uptick,” Tom Dubin, president of the publishing company, said in a news release. “However, it faces tough competition from neighboring states and has a long way to climb back from the recession.”

Below are highlights of the survey:

• Food products, the largest sector for manufacturing jobs (49,365 jobs), is up 0.5 percent in 2014. The opening of Ozark Mountain Poultry in Warren and South Coast Baking in Springdale is expected to continue the increase.
• Industrial machinery, the second-largest sector, was up 1.7 percent to 15,873 jobs.
• Increases were also seen in rubber and plastics (1.3 percent) and electronics (1 percent).
• Losses were seen in printing and publishing (4.1 percent), lumber and wood (2.3 percent), stone, clay and glass (1.8 percent), and transportation equipment (1.6 percent).
• Northwest Arkansas employs the most in the sector with 111,694 jobs. It is followed by the northeast (36,224 jobs) and the southwest (31,129 jobs).
• Springdale is home to the most manufacturing jobs at 13,865. It’s followed by Little Rock (12,114 jobs), Fort Smith (11,576 jobs), Conway (7,069 jobs) and Rogers (6,789 jobs).

The latest totals from the state Department of Workforce Services, through October, puts the manufacturing job total at 156,900. That’s up 1,500 from September and 4,800 from October of last year.