Firms hiring, but temp jobs dominate

A local manufacturing industry battered by news this summer of Regal-Beloit Corp.’s planned closure and elimination of some 330 jobs is anxious for brighter days – even if it means temporary work.

A recent bright spot is in temporary job placements for manufacturing positions. Penmac Staffing Services Inc. President and CEO Paula Adams said manufacturing job placements are up 5 percent through the first eight months of the year compared to the same period last year.

“Where we have some customers that are down this year, others are coming up,” said Adams, whose company counts 85 percent of its 400 clients in the manufacturing sector, including Regal-Beloit Corp., NorthStar Battery and Jarden Corp. “Manufacturing companies, as they start getting busier, will use a service because they can leave them on our payroll for as long as they need to and then get them hired on as they’re getting stronger and growing.”

She said most temporary manufacturing job wages start at minimum wage and go up to $10 per hour, though higher-paying skilled labor positions are not uncommon.

“This year, our biggest struggle has been finding enough qualified, skilled people to fill the positions we have available,” Adams said. “But that’s what we do. We are people machines.”

The local demand is tempered by Regal Beloit Corp.’s (NYSE: RBC) decision this summer to close its East Sunshine Street manufacturing facility within 18 months and lay off some 330 employees. Adams said Regal was one of Penmac’s first customers after it opened in 1988, and the layoffs are a blow to the local job market as many of the long-time employees would be challenged to replace their incomes.

NorthStar Battery in northwest Springfield has worked through its own rounds of layoffs, reducing its temporary workforce and running only three- and four-day workweeks in late 2011 and early 2012.

Plant Manager Tim Caldwell said the cell-phone battery manufacturer has bounced back with rising orders particularly in telecommunications and new products, and in the last year NorthStar added 130 full-time employees. The Springfield plant produces batteries for cell phone towers, cars, servers and data warehouses.

“Every month, we evaluate what the current business climate is and weigh that against orders,” Caldwell said, noting the Springfield staff count is now 525, about equal with early 2011 levels.

Nationally, the manufacturing environment appears to be improving, said Rita Needham, executive director of the Springfield-based Missouri Association of Manufacturers. She pointed to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ purchasing managers’ index, which climbed 8 percent in July compared to June and by 10 percent since July 2012.

“The purchasing managers’ index is one that we always watch because it reports on durable goods – anything that is going to last more than three years – and it has been up steadily. Manufacturing really has led us out of the recession.”

The most recent durable goods report has orders up to 2007 levels, and according to data trackers Wanted Analytics, there were 244,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs in May – 2 percent higher than the same month in 2012, but roughly double the number of jobs on payrolls in May 2009.

In southwest Missouri, Needham said Joplin’s MSW Inc., which produces furnishings for the restaurant industry, is among companies that have been hiring recently. Additionally, Leggett & Platt Inc. (NYSE: LEG) is adding 12 workers to support a $5.1 million expansion of its automobile seating components plant in Carthage, and Paul Mueller Co. is winding down a three-year hiring push launched in October 2011.

At the time, the stainless steel manufacturer said it would hire 289 workers and invest $600,000 through 2014. Kimberly Pridgen, Mueller Co.’s marketing communications manager, could not be reached by deadline for comment on the status of its hiring initiative.

“The general tone among manufacturers in southwest Missouri is that things are strong,” Needham said.