Manufacturing employment in Delaware declined slightly over the past year, according to the 2016 Delaware Manufacturers Register. The long-running industrial directory is published by Manufacturers’ News, Inc.
According to MNI’s database of manufacturers, Delaware lost 392 industrial jobs from July 2014 to July 2015, or 1.1 percent.
That is higher than recent Delaware Department of Labor figures that manufacturing jobs remained stable between August 2014 and the same period this year.
In its monthly report, the Department of Labor reported an overall jobless rate of 4.9 percent, up two-tenths of one percent from July.
Neighboring Pennsylvania saw a loss of about one-half of one percent, with Maryland down less than one percent. Earlier this year, New Jersey reported a half of one percent gain.
The US overall has reported a 1.8 percent gain in the past year, Manufacturer’s News reported. Sunbelt states with right to work laws that tend to limit union activity have often seen gains in manufacturing employment.
Even California has eked out 1 percent gains in manufacturing despite high taxes, as well as high energy and living costs.
MNI reports Delaware is now home to 686 manufacturers employing 34,566 workers.
The loss of blue collar jobs in manufacturing has cast a pall over a long-running economic recovery in the state.
“Delaware still struggles with high business costs and competition from its neighbors,” says Tom Dubin, president of the Evanston, IL-based publishing company, which has been surveying industry since 1912. “However, its highly educated workforce and abundance of capital, as well as the relative ease of establishing a business in the state seem to be a draw for a variety of enterprises.”
Employment declines were mostly seen in Delaware’s chemical/pharmaceutical processing industry, with jobs in that sector down 2.3 percent over the year, due largely to staff cuts at pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca’s site near Wilmington.
The chemical industry ranks second in the state for industrial jobs, employing 8,626. That total will drop further in the next report, with cutbacks and closings at DuPont spin-off Chemours.
Food processing, dominated by the poultry industry, accounts for a quarter of Delaware’s industrial jobs, or 8,912, virtually unchanged over the year.
That industry has been under fire from environmentalists and neighbors opposed to a possible production site of a former pickle plant by poultry producer Allen Harim.
Sussex, the nation’s largest chicken growing county, has seen an influx of residents drawn by low taxes.
Additional losses were reported in rubber/plastics manufacturing, down 5.5 percent; primary metals, down 5.2 percent; medical instruments/measuring devices, down 3.1 percent; and printing/publishing, down 1.6 percent. The closing of the Evraz Claymont Steel plant is believed to have contributed to the decline in the metals category.
Gains were seen in electronics, up 8.8 percent; fabricated metals, up 3.9 percent; and stone/clay/glass, up 2 percent.
Recent announcements of new plant openings in Delaware included Ireland-based AB Group Packaging’s plans for its first U.S. plant to be built in Newark. In addition, Techmer PM plans to relocate its thermoplastic resin plant from Pennsylvania to New Castle, and Resource International expects to establish a short-run facility, also in New Castle.
The above-listed sites often receive assistance from the State of Delaware, due to continued “smokestack chasing” incentives from states hungry for blue collar jobs.
Delaware is poised to lose research and development work as DuPont spin off Axalta, due in part of incentives. The paint and coatings manufacturer will operate the center at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia. The Axala jobs are often not classified as being in the manufacturing sector.
New Castle County accounts for the largest share of the state’s industrial employment, with 19,665 workers, down 1.7 percent over the year. Sussex County is home to 12,061 workers, up a half percent, and Kent County is home to 2,840. That number is down 3.8 percent.
Industrial jobs in the Wilmington area fell 7 percent over the year, reports MNI, with the area home to the most jobs in the state, numbering 8,391. Industrial jobs rose 3.9% in second-ranked Newark, to its current level of 5,376 jobs, and climbed 1.1% in New Castle, which ranks 3rd with 3,380 industrial jobs.
Detailed profiles of all Delaware manufacturers can be found in the 2016 Delaware Manufacturers Register available in print or online.
