November 22, 2010
Continuing a trend over the last several months, last week's economic indicators continued to gain modest positive momentum into the fourth quarter. Six of the ten major indicators improved, one remained unchanged and just three declined. (To see all of last week's reports, see the Latest Economic Reports section below.)
Three of the reports that came out last week involved the manufacturing sector. Overall, the picture developing in the fourth quarter is of broad-based yet modest growth. As the green and red bars (which show the proportion of the major 19 manufacturing industries where production grew or declined) in the chart above illustrate, 14 manufacturing industries increased production in October -- the largest number since April. While this is a good sign, it is also clear that the manufacturing recovery is decelerating. As the black line in the chart shows, manufacturing production grew at an annual rate of just 3.3 percent in the three months ending in August.
While this is likely faster than the overall pace of the economy, the pace of the manufacturing recovery has slowed significantly from the first half of the year. This is due to several factors. First, most of the fiscal stimulus is now spent. Second, the inventory rebuild has also run its course. Despite the ongoing concerns with respect to possible tax increases next year, which would be a real "body blow" to the recovery, the chances that the manufacturing sector will continue to outpace the overall recovery are high, mainly due to continued solid export growth, which is the one area where the current recovery has performed better than all its predecessors in the post-WWII era.
Dave Huether
Chief Economist
National Association of Manufacturers
World Trade Center Utah
"Everybody talks about Asia these days," says German Ambassador to the United States, Klaus Scharioth. "That is important," he says, "but 50 percent of the country's foreign direct investments go to Europe. And there is a reason for that; in the EU there are opportunities and Germany is the biggest economy of the EU. It's a myth that the transatlantic relationship, in economic terms, is not as important as it used to be."
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Utah Media Partners, publishers of Hometown Values magazine, today announced that it has acquired Utah Business magazine.
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DATC STARTING ENERGY INDUSTRY TRAINING
Tom Busselberg Davis County Clipper - Davis Clipperslideshow
KAYSVILLE— Energy jobs training starts at the Davis Applied Technology College in January.
The college will serve as a regional training facility for energy technician and related positions, says Hailee Long, DATC employer and continuing education manager.
Open to anyone, the program is targeting unemployed and underemployed, as well as veterans and at-risk youth, she said. Thanks to grant funding, those qualifying can complete the program for free, she said.
Initially, the program is geared to train 70 students over the next two years, Long said. “We’ll have some core components, basic skills anyone in an energy-related field would need” that will be taught, as well as three specialized tracks.
Those are green construction, energy management and renewable energy transmission.
“We really feel there’s a need in the community for individuals who possess skills in energy-related fields,” says DATC President Mike Bouwhuis.
Thanks to collaboration with several government entities, including the Department of Workforce Services and the private sector, the college is able to start a new program such as this in times that are still economically tough, he said.
“We received a grant from the State Division of Facilities Management, not only to teach but to put things into a practical context,” Bouwhuis said.
For example, eggshell blue panels in the college’s atrium have been used in a heating exchange with the welding area for years, he explained.
Thanks to the state grant, the roof will be remodeled, solar panels installed across the entire south face of that main building on the second floor.
Not only is it hoped enough energy will be generated to supply power needs for parking lot lights and more, but a training opportunity will be created for the energy program students, Bouwhuis said.
“We’ll develop a functional lab, where students go up there (second floor), see how the solar system works. We’ll have components not hooked up that they can put together, get an understanding, etc.,” he continued.
Discussions are also under way to use the county’s (and state’s) weatherization training facility at the Freeport Center in Clearfield, Bouwhuis said.
“We want to see if we can use their lab, so we don’t have to replicate it, teach some weatherization techniques as well,” he said.
DATC is a regional training facility, with Salt Lake Community College overseeing the statewide effort. SLCC and Bridgerland ATC in Logan are the other two Northern Utah training facilities.
The energy industry is the second of about four or five “cluster acceleration partnerships,” following aerospace, that the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) is implementing, said Craig Bott, president of GrowUtah Ventures, here.
“It’s all about the economics of the industry, how to create more jobs,” he said of the focus.
“This is a very significant segment of our (state) economy,” he said, with some 16,500 working in those fields, directly generating $8.5 billion a year.
“Any time we grow the energy industry, that will offset some of our taxes, helps fund education,” Bott said. “The state is able to collect royalties off of oil, to directly fund education.”
A recent seminar of 30 representatives from the energy industry and others identified a specific strategy to build the energy industry.
All energy sources were addressed, from natural gas, oil and coal, to solar, wind and geothermal, he said.
Quick Manufacturing News
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