According to new data reported to MNI, compiler and publisher of the U.S. industrial data that powers IndustryNet, Missouri’s manufacturing employment edged up over the past year.
Gains were primarily led by the fabricated metals industries, which ranks among the state’s top sectors.
This article will provide an overview of Missouri's manufacturing sector, including key facts reported to MNI on specific industry and geographic trends.
Missouri Manufacturing: Key Findings
Missouri is currently home to 6,826 manufacturers that employ 382,304 workers. According to data reported to MNI, the state added 2,061 jobs over the past twelve months, representing a gain of about a half percent.
Fabricated Metal Products Leads Gains
Manufacturing job gains were led by the fabricated metal products sector, which rose 3.4% over the year and ranks fourth in the state for manufacturing employment, with 36,320 workers.
The food processing sector ranks as Missouri’s top sector by number of jobs, employing 52,878. Employment in that industry declined by 5.6% over the year, following the closure of Treehouse Brands in St. Louis and several closures related to the state’s declining dairy industry. Second-ranked transportation equipment employs 46,370 workers, down 1% over the past year.
Geographic Trends: Smaller Cities Post Job Gains
According to city data collected by MNI, a number of smaller Missouri cities reported gains in manufacturing employment, including Springfield, which saw jobs surge by 14%, currently accounting for the third-most industrial workers in the state at 19,544.
Manufacturing jobs in St. Louis held steady over the year, with a workforce of 74,975, while employment declined 2.3% in second-ranked Kansas City to a current level of 45,059.
According to MNI, jobs in Lebanon rose by 10.5% to 5,637, while Joplin saw a gain of 4.5%, currently home to 8,492. St. Joseph also registered a gain (+3.6%) as did Columbia (+1.9%).
MNI data shows East Central Missouri accounts for nearly half of the state’s manufacturing jobs, at 48% of its industrial workforce. Northwest Missouri is home to 26.6%, while the state’s Southwest region account for 66,955. Northeast Missouri represents the fewest jobs, home to 6.9% of the state’s industrial workers.
Missouri Keeps Pace with U.S. Manufacturing Growth
Missouri manufacturing has generally kept pace with U.S. growth overall, according to the advanced criteria available in MNI’s IndustrySelect database. MNI reported 1.2% of companies in Missouri reported sales growth, while 4% of companies reported employment growth. This is in line with the 1% sales growth and 4% employment growth reported by manufacturers nationwide
Additional information collected by MNI finds 1.8% of the state’s manufacturers are women-owned, while a half percent of manufacturing firms are minority-owned. This is slightly behind MNI’s national data, which finds 2% of all U.S. manufacturers are women-owned and 1% are minority-owned.
Missouri exports $14.2 billion worth of products throughout the world, so tariffs remain a concern for many of the state’s manufacturers. 10% of Missouri’s manufacturers import raw materials, while 21% distribute their products internationally.
Outlook for Missouri Manufacturing Sector
Manufacturers continue to break ground and expand in the state, according to MNI. The establishment of Aurora Organic Dairy’s new facility in Columbia in June was welcome news to the state’s dairy industry, while the prospect of an expansion at the Wentzville GM plant continues to be the talk of the town.
Meanwhile, steel giant Nucor Steel announced plans to establish a steel rebar plant in the town of Sedalia as early as November, and Niagara Bottling unveiled its new project in Kansas City: a 420,000 square-foot bottling plant.
Missouri’s top-notch infrastructure, competitive labor costs, and abundant capital funding continue to encourage expansions and attract new manufacturers. However, like many otherwise thriving states, gains have slowed in recent years as a slowing global economy and tariffs continue to challenge growth
About This Data
MNI’s extensive manufacturing data powers IndustryNet, an industrial marketplace that connects buyers with suppliers. MNI’s team of more than 80 researchers scours hundreds of sources on-and-offline to zero in on every manufacturer in the U.S. Each manufacturer is contacted multiple times annually to ensure its information remains up-to-date and complete.
Reources for Contacting Missouri Manufacturers
An IndustrySelect subscription through MNI can put you on a first-name basis with Missouri’s 7,200 industrial companies and 23,000 executives. Subscribers can select up to 30 data points on any manufacturing company in the U.S. to help identify or pre-qualify leads.
Company profiles also include the contact information for hard-to-find executive decision-makers.
