JULY 1, 2015
Factory employment in Arizona remains steady
EVANSTON, Illinois (BUSINESS WIRE) – Manufacturers’ News, Inc. – Manufacturing employment in Arizona was little changed over the past twelve months, reports the 2015 Arizona Manufacturers Directory ®, an industrial database and directory published by Manufacturers’ News, Inc. (MNI) Evanston, IL. According to data MNI collected from Arizona’s more than 5,000 manufacturers, industrial employment rose by 695 jobs from March 2014 to March 2015, or less than one percent.
Manufacturers’ News reports Arizona is now home to 5,169 manufacturers employing 217,179 workers.
“Arizona is top-notch for space and defense manufacturing, and its easy access to capital and solid infrastructure has attracted a variety of enterprises,” says Tom Dubin, President of the Evanston, IL-based publishing company, which has been surveying industry since 1912. “However, the state still faces high business costs and suffers a shortage of the skilled labor needed for today’s advanced manufacturing.”
Phoenix posted a 1.3 percent employment increase, says MNI, ranking first in the state and 8th in the nation for industrial employment, with 73,222 jobs. Manufacturing employment climbed 3.1 percent in Mesa, and 1.4 percent in Tempe, but fell 1 percent in Tucson.
For the full story, including companies expanding in Arizona visit manufacturersnews.com/news.
Manufacturers’ News reports the fabricated metals sector led the state’s industrial gains with a 1.4 percent increase over the year. That sector currently employs the second-most workers in the state, with 26,922 jobs. First-ranked industrial machinery posted a half-percent increase to its current level of 31,294 jobs.
Additional gains were reported in stone/clay/glass, up 5.6 percent; food products, up 4 percent; lumber/wood, up 3.9 percent; paper products, up 3.8 percent; and chemicals, up 2.2 percent. Gains were offset by declines suffered in the instruments/related products sector, down 5.6 percent; electronics, down 3.7 percent; furniture/fixtures, down 3.3 percent; metal mining, down 2.8 percent and printing/publishing, down 1.7 percent.
