THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 23, 1995 TAG: 9501210101
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 5 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Forecast '95
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Paul Battaglia doesn't plan to hire any more workers - but he hopes productivity increases at Krisp-Pak Co.
A tough trick? Not really.
Battaglia, president of the Norfolk vegetable packing company, plans to increase productivity the way many manufacturers boost their output these days:
``I plan to invest in machines,'' Battaglia said. ``I'm going to maintain the same employees I've got, but try to increase my gross revenue.''
Welcome to 1995. Factories in Tidewater and throughout the nation are on an uptick, but manufacturing employment isn't recovering. While manufacturing is not the engine of South Hampton Roads' economy, 600 plants employ 49,000 workers in the region. The bulk of the employees work in ship repair or food processing.
Tidewater plants this year will likely be shaking through the same crunching economic cycle as manufacturers across the country. In sum, they'll be adding jobs, but not as many jobs as they lost during the 1990-1992 recession.
Between 1979 and 1993, the United States lost 3.2 million manufacturing jobs.
Manufacturers shed 1.8 million jobs from 1989 to 1993, but have added only 300,000 jobs during the recovery.
``In the last year and a half, it's begun to come back,'' said economist Gordon Richards of the National Association of Manufacturers. ``We're not even close to making up the number of jobs we lost during the downturn. It's sort of like a downward ratcheting.''
Still, there are some bright spots in Hampton Roads:
Ford Motor Company will invest $290 million and add 400 workers to its Norfolk Assembly Plant for duction of F-series pickups.
Remarque Manufacturing Corp., an aerospace and electronics industries supplier, will relocate from Long Island and invest $1 million in a Peninsula plant. Remarque will bring 20 jobs with 30 more possible later.down the road.
But those outfits will likely be exceptions. Manufacturers continue to increase productivity by 3 percent a year even as they eliminate jobs. Richards said about 30 percent of the productivity gains are due to workforce reductions, about 25 percent are due to investments in equipment. Technology accounts for the rest.
``That implies that even if you've got strong growth, you're not going to gain jobs,'' Richards said.
KEYWORDS: MANUFACTURING FACTORIES by CNB