An Illinois company that reportedly measures manufacturing job growth, maintains that there are nearly 92,000 people employed in manufacturing jobs in Rhode Island and that manufacturers are increasing jobs faster than the state’s overall job growth. The report contradicts several years of Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that maintain that Rhode Island’s manufacturing jobs are declining, with less than 80,000 throughout the state.
Leonard Lardaro, an economist at the University of Rhode Island, said that according to the BLS, Rhode Island’s manufacturing jobs have been declining at a rate of 1.5 percent to 3 percent a year, with the number of jobs now “well below 80,000.”
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The Bureau of Economic Analysis, Lardaro said, also shows that manufacturing has been declining for a while, which is consistent with the BLS.
The new report, called the 1999 Rhode Island Manufacturers Register is published by Manufacturers’ News, Inc. of Evanston, Illinois. Its latest report maintains that Rhode Island has 91,896 manufacturing jobs, about 20 percent of the total work force, and that’s an increase of 2.52 percent over the previous year. At its peak, federal statistics showed the state’s monthly job growth at 2 percent, with all forecasters suggesting that job growth for the year was no higher than 1.8 percent.
Lardaro called the report “bizarre.”
A spokesperson for the Illinois company said one explanation of the differences might be in the definition of manufacturing. He said his company follows the government guidelines, SIC codes, the same, however, as the BLS and Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The spokesperson said the publisher traditionally contacts companies by telephone and by fax. He said the company prints directories for 38 states and distributes books to all 50 states. They have been in the business since 1912, he said, and the current Rhode Island directory is the third it has printed for the state.
In Rhode Island, he said, the company contacted 2,602 firms. He said the firm has not yet analyzed other states to determine nationally whether they believe manufacturing jobs are increasing, or how Rhode Island’s figures might compare to other states.
Lardaro said that while Rhode Island statistics overlook start-up companies and self employed individuals, there seems no logic to the discrepancy in numbers.
One possibility, he said, is “they have to be interpolating upward and making assumptions or just capturing a parent company that has more employees overall than its Rhode Island operation.”
But regardless of numbers, Lardaro is part of a growing chorus of individuals who believe there is life in Rhode Island’s manufacturing sector. While Lardaro believes employment has decreased, he said productivity has increased.
There are a number of companies, he said, that are making the transition to a more technologically based environment, while companies that have failed to make the transition are slowly going out of business, leaving Rhode Island with a stronger and more productive manufacturing base.
Some of the data reported by the Manufacturers’ Register are:
Rhode Island’s average of 35 workers per plant is some 17 less than the U.S. national average of 52.
Providence is the state’s industrial employment leader with 17,993 manufacturing jobs, an increase of 7.4 percent from the previous year, Pawtucket is second with 11,297 jobs, a 4.64 percent increase.
The top five manufacturing sectors in Rhode Island, according to the Illinois report, are metal fabricating, 13.6 percent; industrial machinery and equipment, 12.26 percent, printing and publishing, 10.53 percent; rubber and plastic products, 4.77 percent; and apparel and fabric products, 4.42 percent.
Providence Business Newsã reprinted with permission, all rights reserved.
