Within the past year, Indiana has seen a major decline of manufacturing jobs. In fact, within the past twelve months, from March of 2011 until March of 2012, the state of Indiana gained approximately 5,184 jobs. This information was provided by the Indiana Manufacturers Directory, which is published once each year. Indiana is now the home to nearly 10,000 manufacturers that are now employing hundreds and thousands of workers, nearly 555,600 workers to be exact.

The Presidents of Evanston, Tom Dubin, says that while Indiana had to deal with jobs losses throughout the past few years, the manufacturing sector is finally starting to grow and expand, which is definitely good news for the state. Dubin also says that because the state has a genuinely friendly environment when it comes to doing business, they have been the select spot for a lot of different manufacturing jobs to be created, most of which are in the automobile sector.

There have been a lot of good opportunities made available for the state of Indiana. Some of these opportunities include the plan for Alcoa to open up an aluminum plant in or around the Lafayette area, along with the expansion of Mossberg Industries, which is located in Garret, Indiana. Some other manufacturing companies, such as ConAgra, have also decided to expand their plants, which ultimately means more jobs created and more people put to work, able to find employment after dealing with such a tough job market after the recession.

The current largest industrial sector for the state of Indiana is the transportation equipment manufacturing sector, which offers nearly 83,900 positions to residents of the Indiana area and is also an increase of 2.3% from the previous year. Industrial machinery is also doing well, with nearly 70,000 jobs available to residents and an increase of 1.9% over the span of a year. There were other sectors that also managed to see an increase throughout the year, which include primary metals, food products, rubber and plastics, and electronics too.

There were, unfortunately, a few losses. The losses took place in the lumber and wood sector, textiles and apparel, and printing and publishing. Some industrial spots that are actually closing are the Really Cool Foods City Facility in Cambridge and the Workhorse Custom Chassis’ Union City Plant. While these losses were unfortunate, the job gain in other sectors seemed to make up for some of these losses.

Out of the entire state of Indiana, the city of Indianapolis continues to take the lead when it comes down to industrial employment, continuing to have 74,655 manufacturing jobs available and no declines made throughout the entire year. Fort Wayne and Elkhart follow directly behind Indianapolis when it comes to the amount of manufacturing jobs available.