Manufacturing is Soaring in the Midwest, Including in MO

Manufacturing is soaring in the Midwest, including in Missouri. Economist Ernie Goss, of Creighton University in Omaha, that’s based upon his monthly survey of business leaders and supply managers across nine states. He says since bottoming out last April, the region has regained almost half of the manufacturing jobs it lost to COVID-19.

“I have to say the trend is very strong, however, we’re still not back to pre-COVID levels,” Goss says. “We’ve probably got another three to four percent growth needed before we get back to pre-COVID levels, but we will get there, assuming we have a successful rollout of the vaccine.”

Goss says the region is still down by some 50,000 jobs. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, manufacturing wages for production workers in Missouri have expanded by a strong 6.1% since the onset of COVID-19.