Manufacturing Jobs in Kentucky Increase

The state of Kentucky saw a slight increase in industrial employment within the state over the past year. The 2012 Kentucky Manufacturers Register, which is published annually by Manufacturers’ News, Inc., released the data. The company is based in Evanston, Illinois. Kentucky acquired 722 jobs in manufacturing over the past year, which is less than one percent, from September of 2010 to September of 2011. The state now has 5,304 manufacturing companies that employ over 275,400 workers.

“The recovery is gaining momentum in Kentucky and across the U.S.,” says Tom Dubin, President of MNI, which has been conducting industry surveys since 1912. “The state’s low business costs and solid infrastructure have been a draw for a variety of enterprises.”

Lexington saw the grand opening of a manufacturing plant for Tiffany & Co; Berea is going to get a facility operated by Hitachi; Logan County has seen the expansion of Ventra Plastics; the Mt. Sterling location for Cooper Standard is going to be expanded; Lexington also saw the opening of Florida Tile’s headquarters; Bloomfield saw the creation of Bloomfield Farms gluten-free manufacturing plant; Winchester received Alltech’s algae fuel production site and Hahn Automation in Boone County expanded as well.

In terms of how many employees there are in one given industry in Kentucky, the transportation equipment manufacturing industry takes home that honor with 37,887 jobs, which is a 2.8 percent increase since last year. With 32,715 jobs, up one half of a percent from last year is the food products manufacturing industry. Industrial machinery and equipment holds 29,819 jobs in Kentucky, which has decreased two percent since last year.

The chemical industry gained 2.4 percent over the span of a year; rubber and plastics gained 2.2 percent; the paper industry gained 1.6 percent; and primary metals gained 1 percent. The state lost jobs in electronics at 3.6 percent; printing and publishing at 3.2 percent; textiles and apparel at 2.7 percent; furniture and fixtures at 2.4 percent; lumber and wood at 2.3 percent; and stone, clay, and glass at 1.2 percent.

The largest share of the state’s industrial employment is Northeast Kentucky, which boasts 152,467 manufacturing jobs. This number has gone unchanged since the previous year for the most part. Southeast Kentucky has the second most amount of jobs, with 44,387 manufacturing jobs, an increase of 1 percent over the past year. There are 44,047 industrial jobs in Southwest Kentucky, an increase of 1.4 percent since last year. The Northwest part of the state recorded no change over the past year, with 34,547 jobs.

The top city in the state for manufacturing employment as explained by MNI is Louisville, which boasts 50,592 jobs, an increase of one percent over the previous year. The city of Lexington boasts 20,441 jobs, which is down 1.5 percent from the previous year. There was a 6.8 percent increase in jobs over the past year in Bowling Green, which is home to 10,156 industrial jobs. Georgetown did not see much change over the last year, with 9,578 jobs, and Florence boasts 9,312 jobs, an increase of one percent.