Tennessee Manufacturing Jobs Down

A recent study has found that the number of Tennessee manufacturing facilities and jobs has dropped, even as their output goes up.

According to a report from the University of Tennessee, the state’s factories are doing more with less, thanks to advances in efficiency and an increased reliance on highly skilled workers . The amount of money brought in by the state’s manufactured goods is expected to rise more than 53 percent in the next decade. And at the end of that period, there will be an estimated 10-thousand fewer manufacturing jobs.

At the same, time, the geography of the industry is changing. Factories are moving out of cities and into the counties that ring them-which, in turn, shifts the workforce from one place to another . The most dramatic changes can be seen in Middle Tennessee. Between 1997 and 2006, the number of factory jobs in Davidson County dropped by more than 27 percent. At the same time, Cheatham, Robertson, Wilson, and Rutherford counties all saw double-digit gains.