MANUFACTURING

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(20 - 39)

Employment change from last quarter	+ 0.1
Employment change from year ago	- 1.8
Wage change from year ago	+ 5.4

QUARTERLY

The manufacturing industry ceased its four quarter employment plunge adding 116 employees. Growth is up 0.1% over last quarter. Leading the industry gain is Stone-Clay-Glass (32) adding 551 employees. Within Stone-Clay-Glass increases were evidenced in concrete ready-mix, concrete products and glass products manufacturing. Lumber (24) added 199 employees and Apparel (23) 192. Growth in Lumber is attributed to increased demand for prefabricated trusses. Increases in Apparel are due to a short-term production spurt in Misc Fabricated Textile Products. Fabricated Metals (34) added 155 over the quarter. Increases occurred in response to a number of product orders necessitating short term staffing. Losses this quarter were a mix of seasonal cutbacks and layoffs. The largest loss occurred in Printing-Publishing (27) down 483 employees and was a caused by a typical seasonal drop in greeting card production. Cutbacks and the start of closure of a meat packaging plant generated most of the loss of 290 in Food Products (20). Employment in Instruments (38) dropped by 247. More than half of the loss resulted from layoffs at one large establishment and closure of another.

ANNUAL

Annually, Manufacturing employment dropped by 3795 for a loss of 1.8%. Twelve of the nineteen sectors reported decreased employment. The largest sector decline occurred in Non-Electrical Machinery (35) down 1965. All subsectors of Non-Electrical Machinery declined since a year ago and were impacted by layoffs this quarter and SIC changes occurring in January. Layoffs permeated manufacturers of electronic components and accessories creating most of the decline in Electrical Machinery (36), which dropped by 1408. The loss of 731 in Transportation Equipment (37) resulted from layoffs occurring mainly in two companies. Instruments (38) reported a gain of 772, but this increase is due to changes instituted in January by a firm that had previously reported employees in Non-Electrical Machinery. On the positive side, Stone-Clay-Glass (32) realized true employment gains up 709 over a year ago, the result of increased demand for cement products and ready-mix cement. Chemicals (28) was up 406 employees the result of SIC changes from Retail in January. Employment in Lumber (24) rose by 306 due to increased production for pre-assembled trusses in demand by the construction industry.

Colorado Employment and Wages (ES202) Second Quarter 1999