Manufacturers’ News, Inc.– Industrial employment in Arkansas declined one percent over the past year according to the 2014 Arkansas Manufacturers Register^®, an industrial directory and database published by Manufacturers’ News, Inc. (MNI) Evanston, IL. MNI reports Arkansas lost 1,425 manufacturing jobs from September 2012 to September 2013.

Manufacturers’ News reports Arkansas is now home to 3,446 manufacturers employing 195,174 workers.

“Manufacturers in Arkansas have yet to fully recover from the recession, and the state faces heavy competition from its neighbors,” says Tom Dubin, President of the Evanston, IL-based publishing company, which has been surveying industry since 1912. “However, Arkansas’ low taxes and abundant natural resources continue to be a draw for many companies.”

In 2013, MNI reported a 2.9% gain in manufacturing employment for Louisiana; a 2.6% gain for Oklahoma; and a 1% increase for Missouri.

Accounting for a quarter of the state’s industrial employment, or 48,447 jobs, food products remains Arkansas’ top industrial sector, down 1% over the year. Food products manufacturers announcing closures included Odom’s Tennessee-Pride pork plant in Little Rock and a Kraft cheese plant in Bentonville. The food products industry did see some gains with the expansion of ConAgra’s frozen foods plant in Russellville and the recent opening of Ozark Mountain Poultry in a previously-shuttered Pilgrim’s Pride plant in Batesville.

Other bright spots for the state included the expansion of Hino Motors in Marion and the expansion of Remington Arms’ ammunition facility in Lonoke. Sectors reporting gains included transportation equipment, up 5.8%; petroleum products, up 3%; and paper products up 1%.

Industrial machinery and equipment ranks second in the state with 15,711 jobs, down 2.4%, while third-ranked fabricated metals accounts for 15,477, down 1.8%. Additional sectors reporting losses included electronics, down 4.2%; stone/clay/glass down 4%; rubber/plastics, down 2.4%; lumber/wood, down 2.1%; and furniture/fixtures, down 0.8%.

Manufacturers’ News reports Northwest Arkansas accounts for 110,695 jobs, down a half percent over the year. The Northeast region accounts for 37,618 jobs, with no significant change reported. Southwest Arkansas is home to 30,962 industrial workers, down a half percent, while the Southeast is home to 15,899 jobs.

Springdale currently ranks as the state’s top city for manufacturing employment, home to 13,731 jobs, down 1% over the year, according to MNI. Little Rock ranks second with 11,760 jobs, down 7.7%. Fort Smith accounts for 11,586 industrial jobs, down 1.3%, while industrial jobs in Conway rose 2.2%, with the fourth-ranked city home to 7,145 jobs. Industrial employment declined 2.4% in Rogers, with the fifth-ranked city home to 6,783 industrial jobs.

Detailed profiles of Arkansas’ 3,446 manufacturing companies and 478 distributors can be found in the 2014 Arkansas Manufacturers Register^® available in print for $102, or available online through MNI’s industrial database subscription service EZSelect.com. Users may generate custom profiles of manufacturers using a variety of criteria, including region, SIC, sales volume, number of employees, and more. Each business profile provides up to 30 facts, including vital contact information, 13,438 executives by name and title, product(s) manufactured, and more.

Manufacturers’ News, Inc. is the nation’s oldest and largest publisher of state industrial directories and manufacturers databases, and the industrial search engine IndustryNet.com. For 101 years the company has identified, researched and profiled manufacturing companies. MNI employs an 85-person editorial staff to scour business registrations, trade journals, financial reports, and many other sources to pinpoint every manufacturing establishment in the U.S. Each manufacturer is contacted throughout the year to update their profiles, including their employee counts. For more information, contact Manufacturers’ News, Inc., 1633 Central St., Evanston, IL, 60201, 847-864-7000, http://www.manufacturersnews.com