STRICTLY BUSINESS: INDUSTRIAL WEEK COMING UP

Industrial Week is coming up in Cape Girardeau.

Activities sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's Industrial Relations Council start next week with the annual Industrial Appreciation Golf Tournament at Bent Creek in Jackson Sept. 30 at 1 p.m.

Activities continue Oct. 2 with the Industrial Appreciation Dinner. It will start with a social hour at 6 p.m. Keynote speaker is stand-up comedian Joe Malarkey.

A highlight of the dinner will be announcement of the Commitment to Excellence Award, which is presented to the Industry of the Year.

The award will spotlight an area industry that has demonstrated excellence during the year. Previous recipients of the award:

1989: Lone Star Industries.

1990: Procter & Gamble Paper Products Co.

1991: Biokyowa Inc.

1992: Concord Publishing House-Southeast Missourian.

1993: Dana Corp., Spicer Axle Division.

1994: Florsheim Shoe Co.

1995: Spartech Corp.

Those eight Cape Girardeau County manufacturers provide employment to more than 2,700 people. Procter & Gamble accounts for almost half of the jobs.

Tickets are available for the dinner from the Chamber of Commerce.

Missouri Manufacturing

The Missouri manufacturing scene still has a healthy glow despite the loss of some manufacturing plants and jobs during the past year.

The Show Me State is on the minus side of manufacturing jobs and industrial plants over the past 12 months, but its employment figures are up. As of July 31, 2,772,000 Missourians had jobs.

Many of the jobs were in construction, where more than 4,000 new jobs were created during the summer.

The number of industrial jobs have decreased, from 459,673 to 456,536, a loss of less than 1 percent, according to the Missouri Manufacturers Register, 1997 edition. That is a loss of 3,137 jobs.

Manufacturing gained more than 2,000 jobs in chemicals, allied-products, aircraft and aircraft-related-parts jobs during the summer, but have lost about 2,000 jobs in textile-mill products and apparel.

The state gained 332 manufacturing plants during the year, said Leah V. Kalas, director of communications of Manufacturers' News Inc. of Evanston, Ill., which researches and publishes manufacturing registers each year. "But Missouri lost 486 plants to mergers, movement out of state and closings," said Kalas.

9,557 plants in Missouri

That translates into the loss of 154 manufacturing plants, bringing the 1997 total to 9,553, a decrease of 1.6 percent, from the 9,707 a year ago. This is in contrast to Missouri's northern neighboring states -- Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois -- that show an average plant gain of more than 1 percent. The number of manufacturing jobs in the three neighboring states remained virtually unchanged.

Cape Girardeau County statistics followed the state trend, with a loss of three manufacturing facilities. That resulted in the loss of 287 jobs, more than half of them at Tri-Con Industries, which closed in January.

Cape Girardeau ranked 12th in the state in the number of manufacturing facilities and 17th in the number of manufacturing jobs. The city had 92 plants listed in the new publication, down from 95 last year. Manufacturing employment for Cape Girardeau was more than 4,400, down about 200 from the total of a year ago.

Jackson gains employment

Jackson, meanwhile, lost two manufacturing plants, but had an 8 percent gain in manufacturing employment, from 3,169 in the 1996 report to 3,430 in the 1977 report.

Jackson, ranked 24th in manufacturing jobs, now has 3,420 jobs in 43 facilities.

Eight of Missouri's top 10 industrial cities suffered decreases in the number of manufacturing plants.

Missouri has gained more than 1,100 manufacturing plants over the past three years. That was highlighted by a big gain in 1995, when about 1,000 factories joined the manufacturing scene.

St. Louis, the leading industrial city with 2,010 manufacturing plants, was one of the big losers from last year's register numbers. St. Louis gained 39 plants during the last 12 months -- August 1994 through July 1995 -- but lost 127, resulting in a decrease of 88 plants. Still, more than 109,087 people are employed in manufacturing in St. Louis, a decrease of 41 percent from 1996 totals of 113,846.

Kansas City, the second-largest industrial city in the state with 863 plants, gained 30 and lost 63 for a decrease of 33 plants over the past year. About 51,000 people are employed in the manufacturing sector in Kansas City, down 1.5 percent from a year ago.

Top 10 cities by plants

Rounding out the top 10 cities, by plants: Springfield, 379, down from 383 last year; Fenton, 261, down from 168 last year; St. Joseph, 150, same as a year ago; Joplin, 158, down two; Hazelwood, 53, unchanged; Bridgeton, 64, up four; Maryland Heights, 114, unchanged; and North Kansas City, 146, down five.

Printing and publishing companies comprise the largest industrial group in the state with 1,607 statewide, representing 16.8 percent of the state's total. Industrial machinery and equipment is second on the list, with 1,251 plants, accounting for 13.1 percent of manufacturers in the state. Rounding out the top five among manufacturers are metal fabricating, 935 plants; food industry, 692 plants; and lumber and wood products, 651 related plants.

Detailed profiles of all 9,710 manufacturing plants appear in the annual register, which is divided into six sections covering more than 600 Missouri cities. All manufacturers can be found alphabetically and by city, product, SIC code and parent company.

Manufacturing News Inc. has been gathering and publishing industrial information since 1912. In addition to Missouri, the company publishes directories for 27 other states.

Businesses up in state

Another report, this one issued recently by the U.S. Department of Commerce, reveals that total businesses in Missouri increased to 138,274 in 1994, the latest year that total statistics are available.

The totals represented an increase of 2,093 from 1993. Payroll for the state went up 7.3 percent, from $46.8 billion in 1992 to $50.2 billion in 1994, and the number of employees grew from 2,040,435 to 2,101,239.

The services sector employed the largest portion of the state's private-sector work force with 33.4 percent, with an average annual payroll per employee of $21,417.

The business patterns reveal information by detailed industry in nine major economic divisions: (1) agriculture, forestry and fishing; (2) mining; (3) construction; (4) manufacturing; (5) transportation and public utilities; (6) wholesale trade; (76) retail trade; (8) finance, insurance and real estate; and (9) services.

Data is not provided for self-employed persons, railroad employees, many government employees and agriculture production workers.

St. Louis County has 29,278 businesses, the most of any county in the state, with employment totals of 529,458. Jackson County is second on the list of businesses, with 17,606 (330,382 employees); followed by St. Louis city with 10,714 businesses, (269,652 employees); Green County, 7,177 business, (223,127 employees); and St. Charles County, 5,153 businesses, (65,569 employees).

Area businesses, employment

Cape Girardeau County had 2,180 businesses and 31,049 employees, up from 2,161 businesses and 30,125 employees in 1993.

The number of businesses in area counties followed by the number of employees:

Cape Girardeau: 2,180 businesses, 31,049.

Bollinger: 175 businesses, 1,300.

Butler: 1,018 businesses, 11,500.

Dunklin: 777 businesses, 7,000.

Madison: 271 businesses, 2,600.

Mississippi: 283 businesses, 2,700.

New Madrid: 375 businesses, 5,400.

Perry: 422 businesses, 7,047.

Pemiscot: 370 businesses, 4,200.

Scott: 1.130 business, 12,587.

Stoddard: 728 businesses, 8,000.

St. Genevieve: 347 businesses, 4,700.