Manufacturing Rebounds in September

October 16 -- Ariens Co. in Brillion is looking for more workers to help it meet seasonal demands for snow removal equipment.

 

Diane Bluel, human resources manager at Ariens, said Monday the company has between 70 and 80 part- and full-time openings. Available jobs include low-skilled assembly positions to those requiring more skills including machinists, fabricators and welders.

“It’s for our seasonal ramp up,” Bluel said of the company’s job fair. The company, which as about 1,200 workers between its two Brillion plants, also held a job fair in the spring to fill seasonal positions at that time.

What’s happening at Ariens Co. reflects rebounding manufacturing activity nationally. The Institute for Supply Management’s September Index showed U.S. manufacturing grew for the first time in four months, buoyed by a jump in new orders and more jobs.

The increase is a hopeful sign that the economy may be improving after a weak stretch. The institute, a trade group of purchasing managers, said Monday that its index of factory activity rose to 51.5. That’s up from 49.6 in August.

The reading “will boost hopes that some of the recent slowdown in economic growth was just a summer phenomenon,” Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients.

Not all manufacturing sectors are reporting robust activity.

John Daggett, a spokesman for Oshkosh Corp., a maker of military vehicles and parent company of fire apparatus manufacturer Pierce Manufacturing, said the firm has felt the impact of government spending cuts.

“Municipal spending and tax revenues are still down,” he said. “As we all know, defense business is driven by contracts and future defense budgets are reduced.”

In the manufacturing survey, a measure of new orders jumped to 52.3, the highest reading since May. That suggests production will increase in the coming months.

And a gauge of employment rose, a sign that manufacturers may report a gain in jobs when September’s employment report is released Friday. Manufacturers shed workers in August.

Manufacturers also said they are facing rising costs for corn, fuel and several other commodities.

The improvement at U.S. factories comes even as growth is slowing overseas. Europe’s financial crisis has pushed many countries in the region into recession. Growth in emerging nations such as China and India has slowed.

China’s manufacturing sector shrank in September, according to a survey by a Chinese trade group. But its measure of factory activity rose for the first time in four months, to 49.8, from 49.2.

The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of just 1.3 percent in the April-June quarter, down from a 2 percent growth rate in the January-March quarter.

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