Four Hundred Eight U.S. Industrial Plants Go Online in 2007

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In 2007, 408 industrial plants employing almost 29,000 people began operations in the U.S. At the same time, 268 plants employing almost 57,000 people closed and ceased operations. Taking into account these two facts underscores a few important trends occurring in the U.S. industrial market. This is only a partial view of the industrial employment trend in the U.S., as it does not take into consideration plants that expanded and added employees, or the large number of plants that suffered layoffs in 2007, such as at Ford (NYSE:F) (Dearborn, Michigan) and General Motors (NYSE:GM) (Detroit, Michigan).

Despite peaking industrial plant construction activity, industrial jobs are decreasing. This is not new, as industrial manufacturing jobs have been exiting the U.S. for years to areas with cheaper labor, materials and energy like Mexico and China. Also, the new plants that are coming online are highly automated and require fewer employees to operate.

The 408 new plants join more than 32,000 operational industrial plants with about 6.9 million employees. The top 10 states in regard to the number of operational industrial plants are:
•Texas: 2,626 plants
•California: 2,121 plants
•Ohio: 1,586 plants
•Pennsylvania: 1,455 plants
•Illinois: 1,372 plants
•North Carolina: 1,172 plants
•Wisconsin: 1,143 plants
•Georgia: 1,106 plants
•New York: 1,103 plants
•Michigan: 1,086 plants

Click on the image at right to view the Top 10 Industrial Plant States List.

Industrial Info monitors the progress of precommissioned and commissioned plants as part of its North American Industrial Plant Database. Each plant is called at least one time per year to update key management contacts, phone numbers, addresses and so forth. A majority of the plants are called more than once, especially if there is significant maintenance or capital project activity under development.

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Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading marketing information services company for the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy-related markets throughout the world. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, IIR provides accurate and timely intelligence featuring plant and project information databases, focused market databases, industry forecasting, key industry contacts, industry and territorial map products, direct marketing services and applications, and daily industry news.