REGIONAL JOB SECTORSIn the 30-county Chattanooga region, the industries that are largest relative to the national average, and their projected growth in the next decade, include:* Transportation: 41,031 jobs, or 150 percent more concentrated than the U.S. average. Job growth is projected at 22 percent.* Fabric products: 43,822 jobs, 45 times more concentrated than the U.S. average. Job demand projected to drop by 20 percent.* Metal-making: 22,962 jobs, with more than half in the transportation equipment manufacturing area projected to grow with VW. Metal-making ranges from 17 percent to 120 percent of the U.S. averages for such employment. Job growth forecast at 12 percent.* Select manufacturing: 37,461 jobs in food, chemical, machinery, plastic and furniture industries. Such industries are 35 percent to 150 percent more concentrated than the U.S. average. Job decline of 1 percent projected.Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009
Chattanooga's railroad history may have earned it the name of "Choo-Choo City," but increasingly freight is shipped from and through town by truck.
As home to two of the nation's top 10 trucking companies - U.S. Xpress and Covenant Transport - Chattanooga's trucking presence is 21/2 times greater than the U.S. average and is projected to continue to add jobs over the next decade.
"It's an industry where there seems to be a good outlook for employment, unlike many others these days," said Albert Whipple, a 43-year-old driver who is completing his testing this week to drive for U.S. Xpress.
A new study says the transportation sector will lead job growth in the next decade among the four major business sectors that distinguish the Chattanooga regional economy from the U.S. average.
The study was conducted by Mississippi State University's National Strategic Planning & Analysis Research Center for the Tri-State Regional Workforce Alliance, which includes 30 counties in Southeast Tennessee, Northwest Georgia, Northeast Alabama and Western North Carolina.
The region's transportation sector is projected to grow from 41,031 jobs last year to 45,717 jobs by 2019, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates.
Among other regional industries with more jobs and investment than the U.S. average - metals, textiles and selected manufacturing - the bureau says employment should increase for metal manufacturers overall but decline in the other two sectors.
The study says the Chattanooga region maintains an above-average presence in fabrics, metals and selected manufacturing, plus transportation. Even with cutbacks in some sectors, the four key industries should employ 145,276 workers by 2019, the study predicts.
Focused around carpets in Dalton, Ga., and socks in Fort Payne, Ala., the region's textile employment presence is 44 times greater than the nation as a whole, according to the study.
Factory automation and foreign competition are projected to cut textile and fabric product jobs by 20 percent, or nearly 8,000 jobs, study author Domenico "Mimmo" Parisi wrote. But textiles will remain dominant in many regional counties and the industry will continue to hire replacement workers and new positions.
"Even though textiles are not growing, with innovation and new technologies, the industry is going to remain a major industry in the area even though it may not employ as many people," said Parisi, a professor of sociology who studies trends in regional economies.
Buoyed by Volkswagen's Chattanooga assembly plant, jobs in transportation equipment manufacturing are projected to grow by 15 percent and fabricated metal production by 25 percent, Parisi predicts. Jobs in primary metal manufacturing are expected to decrease by about 5 percent, which is less than the national decline.
In the select manufacturing industries including food, chemicals, plastic and furniture, overall employment will drop by 8 percent in the next decade but remain a dominant economic force, he said.
"These industries will continue to be key contributors to the regional economy and their success or failure will help shape the growth in this region," Parisi said. "You either innovate or you relocate or evaporate."