Utah's industrial employment drops

Utah's industrial employment fell 4 percent during the past year, the sharpest decline since Manufacturers' New Inc. began tracking the state's industry 17 years ago.

Manufacturers Directory, published annually by MNI, based in Evanston, Ill., said Utah lost 6,526 industrial jobs and 156 manufacturers between August 2008 and August 2009. The latter figure also was a 17-year high.

MNI said Utah now has 3,986 manufacturers employing 157,375 people.

Transportation equipment suffered the worst drop in employment, down 15.4 percent following layoffs at auto supplier Autoliv and Atwood Mobile Products, among others, MNI said. The top sector, food products manufacturing, with 18,434 jobs, held steady during the year. Industrial machinery employment and equipment fell 4.3 percent to 15,630, while chemical manufacturing slipped 2.4 percent to 13,666 jobs.

Central Utah had the largest percent of employment losses, down 17.8 percent to 5,267 jobs. Northern Utah was down 3.6 percent to 144,735 jobs. Southern Utah held steady at 7,373 industrial jobs.

Salt Lake City is manufacturing's top employment city, being home to 50,332 jobs. That's down 7.5 percent during the year. Second-ranked Ogden was down 7.8 percent to 14,766 jobs.