According to the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) Monday Economic Report for this week, manufacturing employment increased by 22K in September, slowing from 27K in August but continuing to rise. Hiring in the durable and nondurable goods sectors rose by 16K and 6K, respectively. The manufacturing sector has 12,880,000 employees, the most since November 2008. 

The largest increases occurred in transportation equipment (+8,400, including 8,300 from motor vehicles and parts), food manufacturing (+7,800), fabricated metal products (+6,300), chemicals (+3,400) and electrical equipment and appliances (+3,000). In contrast, sectors with declining employment in September included printing and related support activities (-4,000), machinery (-1,700), nonmetallic mineral products (-1,500) and plastics and rubber products (-1,400). 

On a YoY basis, employment increased in all of the major manufacturing sectors, which was encouraging. The strongest hiring growth over the past 12 months occurred in the following manufacturing sectors: food manufacturing (+72,700), transportation equipment (+72,600, including 47,100 from motor vehicles and parts), fabricated metal products (+57,300), chemicals (+40,300) and machinery (+33,900).