Happy Days are Here Again….Kind Of?

In April 2010, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 290,000. Since December 2009, nonfarm payroll employment has increased by 573,000, with 483,000 jobs added in the private sector. The majority of job growth occurred during the last 2 months. Manufacturing added 44,000 of these jobs gains in April. Since December, factory employment has risen by 101,000. Over the month, gains occurred in several durable goods industries, including fabricated metals (9,000) and machinery (7,000). Employment also grew in nondurable goods manufacturing (14,000). I hope you are in one of these sectors.





Chart of the number of job losses from January 2008 to March 2010.


Finally after about two (2) years of job losses, manufacturing started growing in October 2009, driven by re-orders from low inventory levels, and finally has began adding jobs in the last couple of months. Manufacturing has always been a lead economic indicator seeing the downturn before the rest of the economy in 2008 and starting to see the upturn beginning in October 2009. The belief is that job additions will continue. U.S. manufacturing companies have improved their productivity over the past two (2) years and have improved earnings, which should translate into a willingness to invest in manufacturing infrastructure for future growth and improved profitability by making investments in plant and equipment.

Let me know what you think…Do you believe American Manufacturing is on the Comeback?


Ben Moore
Agent Technologies, Inc.