According to new data compiled by MNI, publisher of the U.S. industrial data that powers IndustryNet, Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector added nearly 10,000 manufacturing jobs over the past twelve months.
Gains were primarily led by food processing, which ranks as one of the state’s top industries, while chemical processing, paper products, and fabricated metals added workers.
With its educated labor pool, solid infrastructure, availability of capital funding, lower costs of doing business, Wisconsin is a top destination for many manufacturers.
Manufacturing Job Growth
Wisconsin is currently home to 10,542 manufacturers that employ 583,772 workers. The state added 9,498 jobs in the past year, a gain of 1.7%. This represents the eighth straight year of gains for Wisconsin manufacturing employment.
Foods Processing Leads Gains
Manufacturing job gains were led by the food processing sector, which rose 3.4% over the year and ranks second in the state for manufacturing employment, with 76,804 workers.
The industrial machinery sector ranks as Wisconsin’s top sector by number of jobs, employing 100,721. That industry grew by a half percent over the year. Additional gains were seen across a wide range of industries and included chemicals (+4.8%); paper products (+1.7%); fabricated metals (+1.3%) and electronics (+1.3%).
These gains were offset, however, by losses in printing/publishing, down 3.6%; primary metals, down 2.7%; and rubber/plastics, down 1.5%.
Milwaukee Bucks the Trend
According to city data collected by MNI, Milwaukee ranked first in the state for number of industrial jobs, with the city home to 45,328 workers. Milwaukee was the only major industrial city to lose jobs in Wisconsin over the year, suffering a decline of 4.5%.
Second-ranked Green Bay is home to 22,639, up a half percent, while third-ranked Madison accounts for 17,654 of the state’s industrial jobs, up 7.4% in 2018.
Fourth-ranked Waukesha accounts for 16,059 jobs, up 2.3%, while fifth-ranked Appleton saw a gain of 1.3% and currently accounts for 15,027 jobs.
MNI data shows Southeast Wisconsin accounts for more than half of the state’s manufacturing jobs, accounting for 54% of its industrial workforce. East Central Wisconsin is home to 23%, while West Central Wisconsin and Southwest Wisconsin account for 46,972 and 45,958 workers, respectively. Northern Wisconsin accounts for the least number of jobs, home to 6.3%.
Wisconsin Outpaces Nation’s Growth
Wisconsin’s manufacturing growth has generally outpaced U.S. growth, according to the advanced criteria available in MNI’s IndustrySelect database. MNI reported 2% of companies in Wisconsin reported sales growth, while 5% of companies reported employment growth.
This outpaces the 1% sales growth and 4% employment growth reported by manufacturers nationwide
Additional information collected by MNI finds 2.6% of the state’s manufacturers are women-owned, while a half percent of manufacturing firms are owned by minorities.
This is generally in line with MNI’s national data, which finds 2% of all manufacturers are women-owned and 1% are minority-owned.
12% of Wisconsin’s manufacturers import raw materials, while 26% distribute their products internationally.
Wisconsin exports $22 billion worth of products through the world, so tariffs remain a concern for many of the state’s manufacturers. 12% of Wisconsin’s manufacturers import raw materials, according to MNI, while 26% distribute their products internationally.
Manufacturers continue to break ground and expand in the state, according to MNI. This summer, Illinois drugmaker, Nexus Pharmaceuticals, announced plans to break ground on a new facility in Pleasant Prairie, while aluminum maker Matalco announced plans to establish a 110,000 square-foot aluminum billet manufacturing plant in Wisconsin Rapids.
Chinese electronics-maker Foxconn finally broke ground on its long-awaited Kenosha manufacturing site in 2019 to much fanfare, purported to hire 1,500 in the coming years. Finally, candy company Haribo announced it will break grown on a manufacturing facility planned for Pleasant Prairie.
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