State sees a slight boost in industrial employment

Industrial employment in Hawaii grew by a half-percent last year, according to a trade publisher’s report released Tuesday.

The 2012 Hawaii Manufacturers Directory, published by Illinois-based Manufacturers’ News Inc., said the state gained 139 industrial jobs between December 2010 and December 2011.

It was the first gain since 2007, when the company began reporting on Hawaii’s industrial employment.

The small gain was a tad softer than Hawaii’s broader job market, which expanded by 1 percent, according to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. The state said there were 596,400 nonfarm jobs in December, up from 590,300 in the same month in 2010. The gain was the first since 2007, reflecting a rebound from the economic recession.

Industrial work isn’t a high-profile or dominant piece of Hawaii’s job market, but it is a significant part of the local economy.

Hawaii’s two biggest job sectors are the government and tourism, each of which employs more than 100,000 people.

Manufacturers’ News said there are 1,185 manufacturers in Hawaii employing 21,943 workers.

The publisher said food products are Hawaii’s largest industrial sector by employment, with 7,343 jobs. This sector experienced no significant change in jobs. The next-biggest industrial sector is printing/publishing, which suffered a 3.3 percent decline in jobs to 3,381.

Local industrial sectors that gained jobs included transportation equipment, chemicals/allied products, paper products, stone/clay/glass, primary metals and furniture/fixtures, the report said.

Two noteworthy developments cited in the report were an expansion at Cyanotech and the opening of a $40 million carbon production plant, both on Hawaii island.

However, industrial job growth mainly occurred on Maui and Kauai, while Hawaii island and Oahu had no significant change in total jobs, the report said.