After losing nearly one-fourth of its factory jobs since the year 2000, Chattanooga is poised for a rebound in manufacturing employment over the next decade.

The new Volkswagen plant and its related suppliers, combined with local plant expansions planned in the wind, nuclear power and defense industries, are projected to drive a rebound in manufacturing jobs, according to local business and development officials.

“I see manufacturing coming back to this community, and that has been one of my goals for a long time,” Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey said.

Chattanooga may never again be the self-proclaimed “Dynamo of Dixie,” but nearly half the manufacturing jobs lost in Chattanooga since 2000 could be made up from already announced projects and suppliers expected to locate nearby.

As Chattanoogans celebrate Labor Day, the share of local workers employed in manufacturing jobs is only one-third of what it was nearly a half century ago. In the July jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, fewer than one of every seven workers was employed in a manufacturing job in metropolitan Chattanooga. At its peak in the early 1960s, 42 percent of area workers were employed at manufacturing businesses.

The six-county Chattanooga metro area suffered a net loss of 10,900 manufacturing jobs from July 2000 to July 2008, the bureau shows, and the current economic downturn could make that number even lower before newly announced projects start adding more workers.

Unlike most of the United States, Chattanooga could see an increase in manufacturing jobs in the next few years as Volkswagen and its suppliers build new plants and two of the region’s biggest factories — Alstom Power and Whirlpool — add more workers.

Also in the works are new manufacturing plants that will fabricate nuclear plant parts in Marion County and build high-tech shelters for the military in Chattanooga.

“Certainly, we’re not going back to the days when we had a hundred foundries here, but I feel real good about the future of manufacturing in Chattanooga,” said Ray Childers, president of the Chattanooga Manufacturers Association, the nation’s oldest manufacturing trade group, started in 1902.

investment turnaround

The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce said new and expanded manufacturing projects announced in Hamilton County are projected to add nearly 3,000 more jobs. In neighboring Bradley County, a 500-employee expansion of the Whirlpool stove plant is planned next year, and Chicago Bridge & Iron is studying a site in Marion County for a 350-employee fabrication plant.

Despite the economic slowdown nationally, Tennessee’s chief economic recruiter Matt Kisber said he is as busy with new prospects as any time in his six years in office.

“Tennessee is a competitive state, and we are getting the attention of business,” he said.

The biggest new manufacturing prize for Tennessee in two decades came in July when Volkswagen announced plans to build a $1 billion auto assembly plant at Enterprise South industrial park and hire 2,000 workers. University of Tennessee economist Dr. William Fox said the VW plant is projected to lure at least as many manufacturing jobs at related suppliers.

In a study released last week, Dr. Fox projects the VW plant will generate another 9,477 jobs in the region, many of them at suppliers drawn to the area.

Chattanooga also is beginning to benefit in some previously hard-hit industrial sectors. Alstom Power and Westinghouse Electric, for instance, are both expanding their Chattanooga operations to serve the nuclear power industry from the remnants of the former Combustion Engineering Corp. At its peak in the 1970s, Combustion was Chattanooga’s biggest manufacturing employer with more than 5,700 employees.

While carpet manufacturers in Dalton, Ga., have shed more than 1,000 jobs over the past year, a new automotive carpet maker — Tuftora Automotive Carpet Inc. — began in May shipping carpet to a Nissan supplier at a new Lookout Valley plant. Hiroshi “Henry” Nakado, president of the joint venture, said the company already has invested $3.3 million in equipment and hired 14 employees and plans to invest at least $1 million more and hire at least a half dozen more workers.

“We’ve been able to hire experienced tufting workers here,” Mr. Nakado said.

productivity gains

Dr. Fox said manufacturing employment across Tennessee has dropped by about one-fourth since 1999 with businesses becoming more efficient and many textile, apparel and other nondurable goods producers shutting down or moving to other countries.

“Many manufacturing jobs are not likely to come back to Tennessee, and we are likely to see a continued decline across the state this year in manufacturing employment,” he said. “But with Volkswagen and all the suppliers it is likely to bring to the area, the Chattanooga area is probably going to do a lot better than other communities and could show some good overall growth.”

But some longtime manufacturing workers don’t think VW and other recent plant announcements can make up for all the cutbacks over the past decade.

Gary Miller, a 44 year-old machinist from Whitwell, Tenn., was among more than 2,000 workers who lost their jobs from the shutdowns of the Wheland Automotive Group foundry and the neighboring U.S. Pipe & Foundry earlier this decade.

“The Volkswagen plant is a great thing for Chattanooga, but even VW and all its suppliers aren’t going to replace all of the plants we used to have in Chattanooga,” said Mr. Miller, who was retrained after being laid off at Wheland five years ago and now works at a machine tool shop. “Most of the plants are a lot smaller, and the benefits are not near as good as what those foundries provided.”

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