Manufacturing Jobs

FACTORY JOBS DRAINING ALONG GREAT LAKES:

Western New York isn't alone in feeling the pain of disappearing factory jobs.

A new study to be released by the Brookings Institution this week will show that Great Lakes states are bearing the brunt of U.S. manufacturing job losses.

The study, which looked at metropolitan areas in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, found that:

* The loss of manufacturing jobs in the Great Lakes states accounted for more than one-third of the nation's loss of factory jobs between 2000 and 2005. In that period, manufacturing jobs in Western New York fell 21 percent - from 104,700 to 82,300.

* The losses were a major reason for slow overall job growth in the seven state region, and overall job losses in some areas. Gains in high-wage advanced service industries, which occurred in all but one of the 25 metro areas studied, were not large enough to offset the factory jobs that were lost.