The U.S. has endured a massive housing crisis, and intense manufacturing competition from a seemingly endless supply of low cost labor abroad.
Yet somehow, for Legacy Furniture Group of North Caroline, business is booming.
Sales are growing 10% and the company has its employees working overtime to meet demand. They’re also hiring.
Associated Press: In November alone, the company that specializes in furniture for the medical industry added a half-dozen employees to its staff of 35. These days, everyone is clocking overtime and the 40,000-square-foot factory is starting to feel awfully cramped.
“We’re starting to stack people instead of stacking furniture,” jokes co-founder Todd Norris as he navigates rows of hand-sanded chair frames.
Legacy isn’t alone, apparently U.S. manufacturing employment has been showing some small signs of improvement, even ahead of improvement in services employment:
Legacy’s recent success highlights a trend: Counties with the heaviest reliance on manufacturing income are posting some of the biggest employment gains of the nation’s early economic recovery. This is a big change from just half a year ago, when some economists worried that widespread layoffs by U.S. manufacturers might be part of an irreversible trend in that sector.
…
“Manufacturing jobs are here to stay, and they’re coming back,” said Derald Bontrager, president and chief operating officer of Middlebury, Ind.-based RV maker Jayco Inc., which recalled or hired 200 laid-off workers over the summer to help ramp up production after an unexpected sales boom overwhelmed all-time-low inventories and left the producer unable to meet demand. They’re still trying to catch up.
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