Wilmington and two other metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in North Carolina are missing out on a nationwide revival in manufacturing, according to a report released Wednesday by Garner Economics LLC of Atlanta.

Between April 2010 and April 2014, when 66 percent of the nation’s 333 MSAs saw growth in manufacturing jobs, the Wilmington area lost 500 jobs, or 6.6 percent of its manufacturing employment, Garner Economics reported.

Joining Wilmington in negative numbers territory were the Winston-Salem MSA, with a 3.4 percent decline in manufacturing jobs, and the Fayetteville MSA, with an 8.8 percent decline. All other North Carolina MSAs – with the exception of Jacksonville, which did not report – were adding manufacturing jobs, reflecting the national picture.

“The U.S. actually added about 600,000 manufacturing jobs over the four-year period between April 2010 and April 2014,” Garner Economics president Jay Garner wrote in the report, titled “Is the Manufacturing Resurgence Here to Stay?”
 
“Most of the MSAs that added the most manufacturing jobs between April 2010 and April 2014 are either major metropolitan areas and/or located in the Upper Midwest – the supposed ‘Rust Belt’ where manufacturing was supposedly in decline,” Garner wrote, pointing to the job gain chart-topper, Detroit.
 
“In terms of percentage growth, most of the fastest-growth metro areas were smaller regions, predominantly located in the South or, again, the Upper Midwest,” he added.
 
Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill MSA, with a gain of 6,700 manufacturing jobs – a 10 percent increase – made the nation’s top-20 manufacturing job growth list.
 
Numbers in the report pointed, however, to the change from traditional manufacturing to precision manufacturing. Between 1979 and 2010, the U.S. economy shed about eight million manufacturing jobs, with the majority of those jobs – 6 million, by Garner’s reckoning – disappearing between 2000 and 2010. As manufacturing returns, plants are becoming leaner and more automated and require fewer workers.
 
North Carolina’s MSAs seeing manufacturing job growth, along with the percentage increase over the past four years, are: Greenville (8.8 percent), Asheville (5 percent), Greensboro-High Point (3.8 percent), Raleigh-Cary (2.7 percent), Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton (1.9 percent), Rocky Mount (1.4 percent) and Burlington (1.2 percent).
 
Garner Economics LLC offers a variety of economic development services to companies, communities and organizations around the world. The firm was retained by New Hanover County last year to perform an analysis of the county’s economic development inhibitors and opportunities, and to make recommendations for future growth.