Manufacturing Cities 2015 (US)

Chef · #1 Posted **May 13, 2016, 2:07 AM**

I was looking at numbers for employment in manufacturing. Some of them were expected but some were surprising. These are for United States MSAs from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

http://www.bls.gov/sae/tables.htm

Total jobs in manufacturing:

Los Angeles 521,600
Chicago 414,100
New York 368,100
Dallas 263,000
Houston 246,900
Detroit 229,200
Minneapolis 194,200
Boston 191,900
Seattle 188,000
Philadelphia 181,300
San Jose 161,600
Atlanta 157,700
San Francisco 126,400
Cleveland 124,700
Portland 121,800
Milwaukee 121,000
Phoenix 119,000
St Louis 114,000
Cincinnati 113,300
San Diego 105,300
Charlotte 104,100
Grand Rapids 103,300
Riverside 95,600
Indianapolis 90,300
Pittsburgh 87,600
Miami 84,200
Nashville 79,100
Kansas City 74,200
Columbus 71,500
Denver 68,100
Tampa 61,900
Austin 57,600
Hartford 55,600
Salt Lake City 55,100
Baltimore 54,100
Virginia Beach - Norfolk 53,500
Washington DC 52,800
Buffalo 52,000
Providence 51,800
San Antonio 46,900
Memphis 45,200
Orlando 41,300
Oklahoma City 37,600
Sacramento 36,300
Raleigh 33,900
Richmond 30,800
New Orleans 30,600
Las Vegas 21,600

Manufacturing jobs as a percentage of all jobs:

Grand Rapids 19.59%
San Jose 15.50%
Milwaukee 14.17%
Cleveland 11.93%
Detroit 11.84%
Portland 10.96%
Cincinnati 10.69%
Minneapolis 10.06%
Seattle 9.94%
Hartford 9.78%
Charlotte 9.42%
Buffalo 9.36%
Chicago 9.03%
Providence 9.01%
Los Angeles 8.96%
Indianapolis 8.88%
Nashville 8.67%
St Louis 8.48%
Houston 8.26%
Salt Lake City 8.15%
Dallas 7.74%
San Diego 7.60%
Pittsburgh 7.54%
Boston 7.25%
Memphis 7.22%
Kansas City 7.12%
Riverside 7.10%
Virginia Beach - Norfolk 6.99%
Columbus 6.88%
Philadelphia 6.43%
Phoenix 6.25%
Atlanta 6.10%
Austin 6.00%
Oklahoma City 5.97%
Raleigh 5.83%
San Francisco 5.59%
New Orleans 5.34%
Tampa 4.95%
Denver 4.88%
San Antonio 4.78%
Richmond 4.73%
Jacksonville 4.55%
Baltimore 3.96%
Sacramento 3.96%
New York City 3.94%
Orlando 3.57%
Miami 3.36%
Las Vegas 2.36%
Washington DC 1.66%

I would be interested in seeing comparable figures for metros in other countries.

James Bond Agent 007 · #2 Posted **May 13, 2016, 3:05 AM**

Interesting stuff. Looks like there's still a lot of high-tech manufacturing in San Jose after all?

I would have thought KC would be higher, this is still a pretty blue-collar town.

James Bond Agent 007 · #3 Posted **May 13, 2016, 3:20 AM**

BTW, for those wondering where a lot of these manufacturing jobs are coming from when it doesn't seem obvious from looking at your city, most big cities have a lot of "hidden" manufacturing tucked away in some of the most unlikely places. Much of it, I might add, is probably not what you'd think of as "manufacturing." For example, many years ago I did a temp job at a company in Pioneer Square in Seattle, 2nd floor of one of the old buildings. They made some sort of health formula (I forget exactly what it was, it was stuff that looked like Metamucil or some sort of protein powder but it did ... I forget what). Anyway, they had some machinery in this one room that poured the different ingredients together in various combinations into the containers, then mixed it up and sealed the packaging. Technically speaking, that's manufacturing (food processing, in this case). It was taking some raw materials and putting them together into a finished product.

I suspect a lot of the "manufacturing" in the jobs listed above is stuff like that, in addition to the more traditional kinds of manufacturing.

Another thing I learned several years ago, last time I bought a mattress ... All mattresses are made locally. For various reasons it's not worth it to ship mattresses long distance. So, every metro area has a bunch of mattress factories. The last one I bought in Seattle was made here, and there is another one nearby here. Close to my new locale there is one here I pass on the way to and from work every day.

Austinlee · #4 Posted **May 13, 2016, 1:45 PM**

Pittsburgh lost 200,000 jobs in about a 5 year time frame during the catastrophic collapse of the American steel industry in the 1980's with 1984 being the worst year. There was no economic bailout that was afforded to save the US auto industry or banking system years later.

memph · #5 Posted **May 13, 2016, 2:42 PM**

Interesting, for Canada it would be.

Toronto: 293,790
Montreal: 213,665
Vancouver: 81,645
Kitchener: 49,225
Edmonton: 44,620
Hamilton: 43,475
Calgary: 41,835
Winnipeg: 36,345
Quebec: 30,935
London: 28,620
Windsor: 27,820
Ottawa: 21,345
St. Catharines: 19,245
Oshawa: 18,615
Sherbrooke: 13,000
Halifax: 10,285
Saskatoon: 9,875
Victoria: 6,065
Regina: 6,060
St. John's: 4,375

Kitchener: 18.40%
Windsor: 18.06%
Sherbrooke: 12.57%
Hamilton: 11.48%
London: 11.29%
Montreal: 10.39%
Toronto: 9.66%
St. Catharines: 9.62%
Oshawa: 9.59%
Winnipeg: 8.96%
Quebec: 7.24%
Edmonton: 6.52%
Saskatoon: 6.51%
Vancouver: 6.41%
Calgary: 5.76%
Regina: 4.91%
Halifax: 4.28%
St. John's: 4.00%
Ottawa: 3.44%
Victoria: 3.19%

I'm a little surprised at how little there is in Baltimore and how high Seattle and Charlotte ranked. Grand Rapids is a bit surprising too, given it's a state capital, I would've expected to have a lower % manufacturing than other Great Lakes cities with fewer government jobs. Admittedly the smaller Great Lakes cities weren't included, maybe the percentages are higher for Toledo, Dayton, Lansing, South Bend, Peoria, etc...

Crawford · #6 Posted **May 13, 2016, 2:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by memph

Grand Rapids is a bit surprising too, given it's a state capital, I would've expected to have a lower % manufacturing than other Great Lakes cities with fewer government jobs.

Lansing is the Michigan state capital, not Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids has a ton of auto suppliers, and is very big in the furniture manufacturing industry, especially office furniture (Steelcase and the like).

I don't think most people think of LA as a manufacturing town, but look at those huge numbers. LA has more than twice the % of workers employed in manufacturing as NYC. By CSA LA probably has twice the overall manufacturing workers as NYC, despite being considerably smaller.

Centropolis · #7 Posted **May 13, 2016, 3:10 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

Interesting stuff. Looks like there's still a lot of high-tech manufacturing in San Jose after all?

I would have thought KC would be higher, this is still a pretty blue-collar town.

KC is a major logistics hub, so those blue collar jobs that you perceive are in trucking, railroads, warehousing, etc.

milwaukee is a major specialty/precision niche mfg hub, which is interesting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Pittsburgh lost 200,000 jobs in about a 5 year time frame during the catastrophic collapse of the American steel industry in the 1980's with 1984 being the worst year. There was no economic bailout that was afforded to save the US auto industry or banking system years later.

we lost at least two steel mills (theres still one USS plant) in the 80s, too. st. louis was an auto mfg hub and i believe missouri was the number two auto mfg state behind michigan at one point, but all auto mfg has ceased in st. louis/st louis county. that includes two ford plants, a corvette plant, and a huge chrysler plant, plus TRW, etc plants that shuttered. the town has been de-industrialized, essentially, like PGH.

MolsonExport · #8 Posted **May 13, 2016, 3:35 PM**

Re: Canada. KW is much higher than I would have suspected, especially given the very strong high-tech and education service sectors in that city. London has been decimated over the past decade.

memph · #9 Posted **May 13, 2016, 4:20 PM**

Smaller Ontario communities. Manufacturing is very important to the economy of SW Ontario, and it seems especially the smaller cities/towns. There's other smaller towns that will break the 20% mark too.

Leamington is pretty impressive when you consider that the 2nd biggest industry is agriculture, so manufacturing is a pretty big deal for the urban economy there, although the closure of the Heinz plant is going to hurt its numbers.

Timmins and Sudbury are major mining towns, so that's the main source of blue collar jobs there. Not sure about Thunder Bay and North Bay, I guess they could be described as service hubs for northern Ontario since the resource sector isn't that big in those cities.

Woodstock: 24.55%
Guelph: 18.99%
Stratford: 18.48%
Midland: 17.82%
Leamington: 17.69%
Brantford: 16.31%
Norfolk: 15.95%
Brockville: 13.01%
Cornwall: 12.39%
Sarnia: 11.82%
Chatham-Kent: 11.78%
Sault Ste Marie: 11.38%
Belleville: 11.31%
Owen Sound: 10.79%
Barrie: 10.59%
Kawartha Lakes: 8.52%
Peterborough: 8.52%
Orillia: 6.81%
Thunder Bay: 4.75%
Kingston: 4.73%
North Bay: 4.05%
Sudbury: 3.93%
Timmins: 2.28%

Guelph: 15,220
Brantford: 11,545
Barrie: 10,925
Chatham-Kent: 5,995
Belleville: 5,260
Sarnia: 5,190
Peterborough: 5,140
Norfolk: 5,065
Woodstock: 4,825
Sault Ste Marie: 4,560
Leamington: 4,020
Kingston: 4,000
Cornwall: 3,425
Sudbury: 3,295
Stratford: 3,165
Kawartha Lakes: 3,080
Midland: 3,065
Thunder Bay: 2,975
Brockville: 2,585
Owen Sound: 1,755
Orillia: 1,355
North Bay: 1,350
Timmins: 520

memph · #10 Posted **May 13, 2016, 4:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Re: Canada. KW is much higher than I would have suspected, especially given the very strong high-tech and education service sectors in that city. London has been decimated over the past decade.

Yeah these are 2011 NHS numbers so some communities will have experienced losses since then.

Blackberry had pretty substantial manufacturing employment in KW, much of which has been lost. Kitchener also lost the Schneiders meat-packing plant.

But you still have Cambridge Toyota, as well as a lot of smaller manufacturers of various auto-parts, and a large variety of other manufacturers. Smaller tech companies might have some local manufacturing, especially if they're more on the hardware side, making various instruments and devices. Being big in STEM and being big on manufacturing can go hand in hand.

James Bond Agent 007 · #11 Posted **May 13, 2016, 5:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Centropolis

KC is a major logistics hub, so those blue collar jobs that you perceive are in trucking, railroads, warehousing, etc.

Yeah, I was thinking about that, too. Still, it seems a little low. But, whatever.

James Bond Agent 007 · #12 Posted **May 13, 2016, 5:50 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by memph

I'm a little surprised at how little there is in Baltimore and how high Seattle and Charlotte ranked.

Seattle has Boeing. Charlotte - and the Carolinas in general - have always had a lot of manufacturing.

the urban politician · #13 Posted **May 13, 2016, 5:58 PM**

I'm about to manufacture some whipass if somebody doesn't post comparable figures from 30 years ago

James Bond Agent 007 · #14 Posted **May 13, 2016, 5:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crawford

I don't think most people think of LA as a manufacturing town, but look at those huge numbers. LA has more than twice the % of workers employed in manufacturing as NYC. By CSA LA probably has twice the overall manufacturing workers as NYC, despite being considerably smaller.

According to this, the garment district in LA employs about 40K (though that number is falling). Lots of the manufacturing workers in the LA area are going to be those garment workers. This article here gives an overview of manufacturing in Orange County, which is pretty sizable at 160K jobs. Probably a lot of those jobs are located here.

James Bond Agent 007 · #15 Posted **May 13, 2016, 6:10 PM**

BTW, when I get home tonight I think I'm going to map chef's data (and maybe add some more cities from his link). Just for the heck of it.

memph · #16 Posted **May 13, 2016, 7:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crawford

Lansing is the Michigan state capital, not Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids has a ton of auto suppliers, and is very big in the furniture manufacturing industry, especially office furniture (Steelcase and the like).

I don't think most people think of LA as a manufacturing town, but look at those huge numbers. LA has more than twice the % of workers employed in manufacturing as NYC. By CSA LA probably has twice the overall manufacturing workers as NYC, despite being considerably smaller.

Yeah, must've gotten Grand Rapids and Lansing mixed up.

LA doesn't really surprise me, the numbers are higher than many other big cities, but not that high (%s) compared to midsized ones. I guess the LA most people are familiar with is Hollywood and West/Central LA but all you need to do is look at an aerial to see there's plenty of warehouses and manufacturing in the other parts of LA.

Anyways, there are a few small cities that are able to edge out Grand Rapids.

#1 that I found and get ready because it's pretty crazy...
Elkhart-Goshen: 46.49% (60,600)

Generally the highest numbers seem to be in the Great Lakes region. I haven't found anything close to Elkhart, but there's a few that have higher %s than Grand Rapids. Outside the Great Lakes, Hickory-Lenoir, Spartanburg, Kingsport-Bristol, Fort Smith and Wichita have high rates of manufacturing employment as well, so the south has a decent amount of manufacturing too.

JDRCRASH · #17 Posted **May 13, 2016, 11:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

According to this, the garment district in LA employs about 40K (though that number is falling). Lots of the manufacturing workers in the LA area are going to be those garment workers. This article here gives an overview of manufacturing in Orange County, which is pretty sizable at 160K jobs. Probably a lot of those jobs are located here.

Yeah the revitalization of Downtown is really in full swing now, so it wouldn't shock me to see many more garment jobs move out as the boom spreads from the Historic Core and South Park into the Garment District.

JDRCRASH · #18 Posted **May 13, 2016, 11:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by memph

I guess the LA most people are familiar with is Hollywood and West/Central LA but all you need to do is look at an aerial to see there's plenty of warehouses and manufacturing in the other parts of LA.

Yeah there's a bunch of big pockets of manufacturing like along the river south of Downtown, as well as around Carson towards the harbor.

There's nothing quite like the Inland Empire, though. Ontario is practically a sea of warehouses.

Yuri · #19 Posted **May 23, 2016, 2:46 PM**

Very interesting. São Paulo metro area manufacturing registered jobs (Dec 2014): 1,116,991.

São Paulo is losing lots of manufacturing jobs for other metro areas around it: Campinas, Jundiaí, Sorocaba, Piracicaba, São José dos Campos, etc. Together, they form the macrometropolitan area, concentrating over 80% of the manufacturing jobs in the state (2,734,154) and about 1/3 of the country (8,171,022).

Jonesy55 · #20 Posted **May 23, 2016, 4:16 PM**

Haven't found any for UK cities/metros yet but here are figures by region...

And nationally the sectors they are in..

There are a few small towns that might make 25-30% of jobs in manufacturing, maybe a bit more, for the larger cities I doubt many are above 10-12%.