About 71,000 Jobs in the Works as 888 U.S. Industrial Plants Begin Operations in 2014

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Great Recession changed how industrial companies have approached hiring and expenditures, which may have forever changed the U.S. jobs market. The focus on job growth has been on private service-providing jobs, rather than manufacturing and construction jobs, the areas that used to drive employment gains. But even after ending 2013 on a down note with only 9,000 new manufacturing jobs created, a look ahead at 2014 offers some hope for future growth in manufacturing jobs numbers. Industrial Info is tracking 888 manufacturing plants currently in the planning, engineering or construction stage that are scheduled to begin production during 2014. They are expected to add 71,000 jobs during the year.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing U.S. manufacturing plants that are scheduled to begin production in 2014.

While not all of these projects will begin operations this year, a large portion of them certainly will, which means workers will be needed. This would average to about 6,000 new jobs each month, and these numbers do not include existing plants that are expanding. The job situation is not going to revert to its pre-recession form, where tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs became available each month, but this should provide a steady base of jobs on which U.S. manufacturers can build.

The bulk of these new jobs, almost half of them, are expected to be created within the Industrial Manufacturing Industry. The industry arguably accounted for more job losses during the recession than any other, simply due to worker-heavy plants and companies, such as automakers and their suppliers, heavy equipment manufacturers, and aircraft manufacturers.

Two other industries are expected to see some significant job growth in 2014. The Food and Beverage Industry is expecting just less than 170 plants to become operational during the year, which will add 12,800 jobs, while the Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industry will see 90 plants become operational that are expected to create 13,300 jobs. Other industries with some solid planned job growth include the Metals and Minerals Industry, with just more than 6,600 jobs to be created; the Chemical Processing Industry, with 2,200 new jobs; and the Power Industry, which is expected to create 1,700 permanent jobs this year.

The Great Lakes, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. are expected to play host to the majority of the new jobs. The Great Lakes region, with its heavy industrial base, is no surprise, given it was hit hardest during the recession; the 13,500 jobs expected to be created within its borders are going to be very welcome. The Southeast region of the country has seen a boom in new manufacturing plants since the end of the recession, and those facilities have spurred some significant job growth. The 11,400 jobs scheduled to be created in 2014 will only help continue that trend. The Mid-Atlantic also has seen some significant manufacturing growth since the end of the recession and will add another 10,900 jobs this year.

Hopefully, these jobs additions, coupled with the jobs added by expansions and modifications to existing plants, will help to jump start job growth among manufacturers. An increase in construction jobs would certainly help, but the construction market has been depressed for several years; it is not likely to see a significant boost in 2014, unless the housing market sees some strong gains and companies ramp up spending to higher-than-expected numbers.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and nine international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.