California loses nearly 42,000 industrial jobs in a year

EVANSTON, ILL.
April 8, 2009 9:29am

Industrial employment in California fell 2.5 percent between February 2008 and February of this year, according to the 2009 Directory of California Manufacturers, an industrial guide published annually by Manufacturers' News Inc., of Evanston, Ill.

The report says California lost 41,835 industrial jobs and 494 manufacturers in the 12-month period, the steepest loss the state has seen in several years.

The state is home to 26,376 manufacturers employing 1,609,929 workers and ranks first in the nation for number of manufacturers and related jobs.

Thirty-five percent of manufacturers closing down in 2008 employed five or fewer employees, according to MNI.

"As with the entire nation, weakening demand continues to hit many of California's core sectors, while the faltering housing market has affected industries such as wood products, furniture and building products," says Tom Dubin, president of the publishing company, which has been surveying industry since 1912.

Employment in the wood products sector saw one of the worst drops in employment -- down 9.3 percent in 2008 -- following closures of lumber mills such as Harwood Products and layoffs at Humboldt Redwood Co, among others. Employment in the furniture sector was down 7.7 percent, according to MNI.

Job losses were seen across all sectors in 2008 and included rubber/miscellaneous plastics down 6.7 percent; stone/clay/glass down 6.1 percent and printing/publishing fell 6 percent, due partially to the closure of a Shutterfly facility in Hayward.

Textiles/apparel dropped 5.2 percent; paper/allied products were down 5 percent; transportation equipment down 2.5 percent; chemicals down 2.3 percent and fabricated metals down 2.3 percent.

Third-ranked food products lost the fewest jobs over the year, down 1.3 percent with losses offset by gains at Ready Pac Produce and the opening of meatpacker Cutting Edge Meat, among others. The food products sector currently represents 165,572 of the state's jobs.

According to MNI, electronics manufacturing remains California's largest industrial sector by employment, with 255,708 of the state's jobs. But employment in this sector was down 3.4 percent over last year.

Industrial machinery and equipment ranks second with 189,245 jobs, down 3.8 percent in 2008.