Good News in the Making (Editorial)

Arkansas got some good news last week, news that appears to exemplify a national trend: U.S. manufacturing is seeing something of a rebound.

On Tuesday, the state announced that Owens Corning Composite Materials planned a $24.5 million expansion of its operation in Fort Smith.

That comes after the company began building in February 2021 a new 550,000-SF manufacturing facility adjacent to its existing plant. 

Also last week, Canoo Inc., the electric vehicle maker that is relocating to Bentonville, announced a 9,300-vehicle order from a van rental company in Utah. It was the third big order for the company since July.

Nationally, meanwhile, U.S. factory production rose in September for the third straight month, the Federal Reserve reported, to its highest level in 14 years. As of August, manufacturing has seen a net gain of 67,000 employees above pre-pandemic levels.

In Arkansas, manufacturing employment was up 2% in August compared with pre-pandemic August 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In a September article about this manufacturing resurgence, The New York Times noted that it hadn’t been driven by companies bringing back factory jobs from overseas, but, rather, “the engines in this recovery include pharmaceutical plants, craft breweries and ice-cream makers.”

Of course, economic headwinds could threaten this national rebound. Among the obstacles are a lack of workers, a strong U.S. dollar that makes imported goods cheaper and a potential recession.

But we take good news where we can find it. We also wonder if one of the eventual lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic will be that relying on foreign producers and supply chains is not as economically sound as it used to be.