A national publisher of manufacturing guides says Rhode Island has lost 3,081 industrial jobs and 95 factories since January of last year. The 3.9-percent industrial job loss is the largest in New England, according to last week’s report by Manufacturers’ News Inc.
The publisher said Rhode Island is now home to 2,321 manufacturing companies employing 74,880 workers.
“Many Rhode Island companies continue to be lured by cheaper labor costs overseas,” Tom Dubin, president of MNI, said in a news release.
“For the plants that remain, fewer employees are needed due to automation and technology.”
Despite a sharp decline in recent years, the jewelry industry remains the state’s largest industrial employer, MNI said, accounting for 8.3 percent of jobs.
And while Rhode Island accounts for only 7.2 percent of the region’s industrial jobs and 8.1 percent of its plants, MNI said, Providence remains “New England’s manufacturing capital,” with 371 manufacturers listed in the company’s 2007 guide.
Boston is home to 353 manufacturers, MNI said, and Manchester, N.H., to 246.
Providence accounts for 14 percent of Rhode Island’s manufacturing employment, or 10,908 jobs, MNI said. Pawtucket ranks second, with
9,261 jobs and 190 plants, while Cranston is third, with 6,399 jobs and 210 plants, and Warwick is fourth, with 5,854 jobs and 212 plants.
Nationally, the company said, Rhode Island’s manufacturing sector ranks 39th by number of plants and 40th by jobs.
None of this matches the R.I. Department of Labor and Training’s figures, which show manufacturing employment at 52,700 statewide as of December, down 1,700 from a year earlier. Department officials would not comment on MNI’s figures last Wednesday; a spokeswoman said they would need more time to review the data.
But John J. Grady, executive director of the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association, said he wasn’t surprised to see the MNI figures, though he was surprised that the Ocean State ranked first in the region for job losses.
(New Hampshire ranked second, with a 2.5-percent drop in 2006, MNI said, while Maine, Connecticut and Vermont posted losses of less than
1 percent. Massachusetts gained jobs.)
Grady said all U.S. manufacturers face challenges due to competition from China and flawed U.S. trade policy, and energy costs in New England are higher than those, say, in the South. But in Rhode Island, he said, the problems are aggravated by the high tax burden.
“It’s always the same thing. It’s taxation,” Grady said.
“Manufacturing certainly has its issues, but it’s a strong employment base, and we pay 25 percent higher salaries and more benefits than other jobs,” he added. “People in the state need to really look at that and stand behind some legislation that will help manufacturers.”
Robert Flynn, vice president of corporate development at Taco Inc. and director of the Manufacturing Summit, an alliance of Rhode Island manufacturers, said companies in the state are at a disadvantage not only because of taxes, but also because of other business costs, particularly health care.
At the same time, however, the state’s manufacturers have increased their productivity, Flynn said. And the redevelopment of Quonset Point creates “potentially a terrific platform for Rhode Island manufacturing investment.”
Taco, which recently expanded its Cranston plant, “is proof that you can create a Rhode Island-based manufacturing business model and compete,” he said.
