Manufacturing Tops Food Products

     According to a press release from Manufacturer's News, industrial employment (think cars) has passed food products in terms of the number of jobs in Alabama. And where are the jobs? Birmingham is on top, followed by Huntsville. Montgomery remains in 3rd place:

Birmingham remains the state's top city by industrial employment with 31,261 manufacturing jobs, with no significant change reported over the past twelve months. Huntsville saw employment decrease 5.1% and is currently home to 26,730 industrial workers. Montgomery accounts for 14,681 industrial jobs, up 5%, while Mobile is home to 12,247, down 1.1%. Fifth-ranked Decatur accounts for 10,153 jobs, virtually unchanged from a year ago.

     The report finds the overall number of manufacturing jobs is virtually unchanged in the past year ...there are 302,511 industrial jobs in Alabama...down just 129 over March of 2011. .
    What the news release does not say is that in 2009 there were 329,904 of those jobs in the state. That 2008 - 2009 drop was "the steepest drop every reported" by Manufacturer's News, which has been reporting the numbers for a hundred years.
     The Department of Labor reports the number of manufacturing jobs in Alabama in 1992 was 380,700.
     I guess it says something about the depth of the Great Recession in Alabama that a loss of only 129  jobs is counted as a blessing.