Jacksonville not so hot for manufacturing

simms3 · October 14, 2011, 07:45:37 AM

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2011/10/13/orlando-manufacturing-payrolls-hit.html

Area comes in 82nd in the country behind such cities as Boise, Evansville IN, Madison WI, Lancaster PA, Manchester NH, and our peer cities.

Thoughts? The article makes $1.3B out to be a large number but fails to do any sort of journalistic comparison to other cities that we should be competing against for these jobs.

Garden guy · October 14, 2011, 07:49:48 AM

When the banks too over the city...manufacturing went away...this city went from a busy city where almost anyone could find a job...now we are a service city..serving hambergers and collecting bills...that's about the only thing left here...there's more money apparently in servicing loans....lots of tax breaks for banks..but try to make a sock company...and you're screwed...no breaks for that.

peestandingup · October 14, 2011, 08:02:17 AM

Take a drive up thorough Springfield's warehouse district & it's pretty apparent that we have a manufacturing problem in this city.

thelakelander · October 14, 2011, 08:49:22 AM

Nothing really shocking here. Jacksonville hasn't been a manufacturing center since the mid 20th century. The days of having our economy powered by manufacturing/shipbuilding powerhouses like Ford, Merrill-Stevens, Gibbs, Alton Box, Jax Brewing, Howard Feed Mills, etc. are long gone.

jandar · October 14, 2011, 09:15:38 AM

We are not a manufacturing area, we are a service area. Many white collar jobs and customer service than most other areas.

The cost of living and income in a place like Boise ID is very similar to Jacksonville. So yes, while we don't have the manufacturing areas, we do make up for it in other fields.

it pays to be diverse in jobs, and not focus on one thing, hence why we are currently sitting on high unemployment.

duvaldude08 · October 14, 2011, 10:47:55 AM

Yeah went from manufactoring, to banking and insurance, and now we are in limbo somewhere. After the majority of the banks and insurance company folded, didnt leave much left.

Ocklawaha · October 14, 2011, 01:06:10 PM

Jacksonville, "The City Beautiful, The American Tropics, Queen of the Winter Resorts."

Jacksonville, "The Gateway City, ...a city with more in common with Newark, NJ then Atlanta."

Jacksonville, "Bold New City of the South, Banking Capital of Florida, The Hartford of the South."

Jacksonville, "River City By The Sea, The First Coast..."

Anyone else notice a trend here?

OCKLAWAHA

mtraininjax · October 16, 2011, 05:44:45 PM

Quotewe have a manufacturing problem in this city.

Who cares, we have 20% of our GDP around Medical Support. If we grow Medical with the Baby Boomers, eventually the Medical jobs can overtake the slimy Financial jobs.

urbanlibertarian · October 16, 2011, 06:13:35 PM

What's so great about manufacturing? I'd rather work in an office than a factory. Robotics is the cutting edge in manufacturing so the future is in programming robots and maintaining them.

ronchamblin · October 16, 2011, 07:37:24 PM

Iâ€™ve always enjoyed the idea of manufacturing. The human desire and ability to design and build is pretty fundamental, as we humans have been building things for thousands of years. There is great satisfaction in building a wooden toy for pleasure, or in building a house to sell or an airplane to fly.

If youâ€™ve ever built a house or a boat, you will know what I mean. Itâ€™s an element within which most human types feel comfortable, and find themselves eagerly wanting to finish the project, to feel and see the final function and beauty of it.

Manufacturing and building is the opposite of destruction. Whereas destruction takes only brute force and chaos within the mind, building something takes imagination, creativity, precision, and skill.

There is something special and magical that happens as one at first imagines the finished project, then the process, the materials, and then works upon the project for an hour, or for years, through to completion.

Soâ€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦ yes, I would be one of the first to wish upon our city a new manufacturing plant, or the building of anything, as it would be natural to our abilities, and accommodate our need for the simple satisfaction of making things, and our need to employ workers.

Iâ€™ve often thought about what could be manufactured, what market or product is not being produced sufficiently to fill the demand, or what new product might one envision that is not yet been made. But alas, it seems that the Japanese, the Chinese, and the Koreans are already manufacturing to cover the demand, and they are able to make things at a much cheaper cost than would be the case with most American workers.

It would be great if we were able to convince a manufacturer of some kind of product to open a facility right in the downtown area. They could employ some of the fellows who are always hanging out in Hemming Park, not as physicists of course, but to work at whatever they are capable of.

Robots? Sally Industries, on the west fringe of the city, manufactures various kinds of robots. However, I think they do so mostly per special order for specific types.

Ocklawaha · October 16, 2011, 08:21:23 PM

'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'
Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, Scribner's, 1905, page 284"

Of course we could just blow it off and create a few more office jobs. I just have this nagging feeling we'll eventually reap what we've sown in the Orient. "Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!"

OCKLAWAHA

danem · October 16, 2011, 08:45:55 PM

Quote from: urbanlibertarian on October 16, 2011, 06:13:35 PM
What's so great about manufacturing? I'd rather work in an office than a factory. Robotics is the cutting edge in manufacturing so the future is in programming robots and maintaining them.

There are actually a lot of people out there who will tell you "I prefer to work with my hands". Robotics may be the future, but I think there will always be a place for those types of people somewhere in the equation of making things.

Ocklawaha · October 16, 2011, 10:43:27 PM

I don't know folks, there are just some things in this world that no digital robotic machine can never duplicate.

OCKLAWAHA

I-10east · October 17, 2011, 01:29:47 AM

It will be real interesting to see if they went by city limits instead of metro area; Those numbers would look ALOT more impressive, although we aren't a manufacturing hotbed. Of course Miami is the number one metro for manufacturing in FL; It's not too fair of a comparasion when you hafta include 417 cities scattered throughout the entire South FL region. Look at our Fortune 500's, those are our strengths; Railroad, mortgage, and grocery. Not to mention military, and healthcare.

Garden guy · October 17, 2011, 07:56:44 AM

Quote from: urbanlibertarian on October 16, 2011, 06:13:35 PM
What's so great about manufacturing? I'd rather work in an office than a factory. Robotics is the cutting edge in manufacturing so the future is in programming robots and maintaining them.

The words.."I'd rather in an office than a factor"...are exactly the reason why our country is in the pits when it comes to manufacturing. No body wants to get hot..no body want to get dirty..airconditioners and keyboards...i call it the "pussying" of america...we use to be the toughest group on the block..now...we are full of a bunch of winney pansy people. We can't all service eachothers loans and make each other hamburgers...it's nice to have a service industry but until we actually start to make things...our path to dependency is set in stone and we as a country are all fucked.