For the past several years, just about the only news about manufacturing in New Hampshire has been bad. 200 jobs cut here. 300 lost there. But those numbers don't tell the full story.
For the past two years, the production of durable goods has added more to the state's growth than any other sector. That's more than trade and nearly three times more than areas such as health services. New Hampshire Public Radio's Jon Greenberg has this look at manufacturing's low profile comeback and what's behind it.
In the past five years, the state has lost some 25-thousand manufacturing jobs. But measured in dollars, manufacturing activity is up. 6 point 6 billion dollars worth at last count.
That seeming contradiction makes sense if you look at the difference between the companies that went under and those that rose up. On the losing end, firms making large numbers of relatively simple products. The winners? The ones making items that are specialized and higher priced.
Tim Dining is president of Greenerd Press and Machine Company in Nashua. Greenerd is a survivor.
CUT 2003 we grew revenues 86%
SFX 1015: :20 feel of open industrial space
Dining's firm builds customized hydraulic presses. Sitting in the middle of the shop floor is a 20 foot high example of what has allowed Greenerd to bring in much needed dollars. It looks like a diabolical four-poster bed with a broad metal canopy supported by four orange columns.
CUT 1117: 1:31 on the arm sticking out of the bed, the bed is 12 inch thick steel plate. On the arm you see the touch screen display. very much current technology. The touch screen sets us apart from our competitors. We control the software. [one way to build loyalty] Exactly.
The infusion of high end design has allowed Greenerd to do more trade in presses that sell for 150 to 600 thousand dollars each. Their customers produce parts that show up in cars, industrial lights and military aircraft. The firm is considerably better off than it was four years ago. Dining says that improvement has come at a high cost.
1022/7:34 The single worst day of my adult life was when I had to lay off 16 machinists. But it had to be done. //They ranged from mid-30's to mid-60's. Seniority 2 years to 38 years. I laid off a couple fellows who I know haven't found work since// and yet i had to do it for not just Greenerd but for the remaining employees.
For decades, it was company policy to support 50 jobs, regardless of revenues. Today, Greenerd employs 20. The mix of the workforce shows a fundamental shift. The number of engineers in the design office is now equal to the number of machinists on the factory floor.
And with all that, there is no cushion. A huge jump in the price of steel scared off a number of potential buyers in 2004 and they are only just beginning to come back. To Dining, the nation's industrial sector is still soft.
In today's economy, a customer who isn't fixated on cost is a blessing. Only five miles away in another corner of Nashua there is one manufacturer with just such a customer. Its sales are booming.
The company is BAE Systems and the customer is the Pentagon.
CUT 1009: 4:29 this product leaves our plant and is drop shipped in Iraq.
Paul Kling is director of BAE's Nashua operations. Inside this sprawling complex, men and women work three shifts, seven days a week. In one room, technicians lean over microscopes to guide their hands as they make intricate microwave receivers. Kling stands outside a room where a group of men assemble optical sensors.
CUT This equates to the eyeball. This can see a missile, reject the sun, factory smokestacks and will discern a true threat coming at the aircraft and take action.
Two years ago, BAE made 60 of these systems a year. Now, they make 60 each quarter. Next year, it will be 60 a month. And each system sells for about a quarter of a million dollars.
Recent trends in defense spending have helped spur manufacturing's comeback in New Hampshire . BAE's Vice President for Strategic Relations and Homeland Security, Rich Ashooh, says America's response to the September 11th attacks has fundamentally changed check writing in Washington.
8:34 this is an appropriations driven business. It used to be there was one a year. It used to be supplemental was the exception. Now, not a year in past 6 that thre hasnt' been a supplementatl. What that does is… The money has been flowing at a steady rate.
There is no complete tally of how many defense dollars flow through New Hampshire's economy. George Bald, head of the Pease Development Authority and former commissioner of the state Department of Resources and Economic Development, thinks it is larger than meets the eye.
18:21 Some companies making products that go into something for the government.
But just as certain as the Pentagon's role in manufacturing's growth, other forces are clearly in play. Within the past few days, GT Equipment Technologies in Merrimack signed a 33 million dollar deal with a Chinese solar energy firm. The Chinese firm says it chose GT because its equipment is very reliable. That thread of high reliability and good design runs through all of the state's manufacturing success stories, from tiny Greenerd with 20 workers to BAE with 6500.
In the past year, high-end manufacturing has been adding two hundred jobs a month. Oddly enough, this gives rise to a lament among the managers at these firms. BAE's Paul Kling and others have a hard time attracting applicants.
CUT 1003: I think that people have the perception that manufacturing is dirty dingy business, low wage situation. Quite the opposite.
The company pays to train its employees. The lowest paid assembly worker at BAE starts at 12 dollars an hour. Those with more skills get 20 to 25 an hour.
The state's manufacturers know they pay much better than the jobs that show the greatest growth, like medical assistants. But their message runs counter to what people get from the news almost monthly. April -- Molex cuts 190 jobs in Guilford. June -- Enterysys lays off 300. Dennis Delay with the Workforce Opportunity Council says the challenge is to get to the people who talk to high school graduates.
CUT people have read all the same articles, the jobs are going to China, it is a bit of adifficult sell to convince guidance counselors that good jobs are in manufacturing. but there are.
Manufacturing firms feel like economic Rodney Dangerfields. They don't get no respect. What they want is the kind of recognition the service sector enjoys. Delay says they deserve it, for good economic reasons.
CUT Manufacturing make goods that are sold elsewhere. they bring dollars into the NH economy they import a lot of wealth into the granite state.
Other sectors, such as trade, tourism, and finance also pull in dollars but not nearly as many as manufacturing. And some state officials say its time to flip our perceptions. In terms of the number of jobs, the service sector might look like its on top. But a large portion of the dollars to pay for those services comes from manufacturing.
For NHPR News, I'm Jon Greenberg.
Story Resources
See the Gross State Product figures
Greenerd Press and Machine Company
BAE System - New Hampshire
