Fastest growing cities for advanced manufacturing
1. Nashville - 7.9 percent 2. San Francisco - 7.9 percent 3. Jackson, Miss. - 7.6 percent 4. Fort Myers, Fla. - 7.6 percent 5. Kansas City - 7.2 percent Source: Brookings Institute, job growth from 2013 to 2015 in advanced manufacturing jobs
Tennessee ranked No. 1 and Georgia was No. 2 in the rate of job growth in advanced industry jobs over the past couple of years, the Brookings Institution said in a new assessment of innovative jobs in manufacturing.
From 2013 to 2015, Tennessee's advanced industry jobs grew by an average of 4.6 percent a year, nearly double the nationwide pace of 2.46 percent. Georgia grew its advanced manufacturing employment at an annual rate of 4.4 percent in the same period.
Nashville was the fastest growing metro area in the country for jobs in the 50 industries that Brookings identified as the most advanced, including technology and manufacturing businesses in a variety of industries.
"Our goal has been to make Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs, and this recognition by Brookings shows we're making tremendous progress by adding highly-skilled jobs faster than any other state in the country," Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said Friday.
According to Brookings, advanced industries employ 249,617 full-time workers in Tennessee, or 8.3 percent of all jobs in the Volunteer State. These direct jobs support an additional 199,690 indirect jobs in other industries across the state.
But Chattanooga did not fare as well, at least in the past couple of years. The share of Chattanooga workers in advanced manufacturing in 2015 was 7.2 percent of the workforce with 17,953 jobs in advanced industries. Although Chattanooga grew faster than most cities in generating such jobs from 2010 to 2013, the next two years showed only a 0.1 percent growth, primarily due to job cuts by Volkswagen, TVA, Alstom and other technical companies.
VW and its suppliers are adding back those jobs and more this year in Chattanooga, however, with the start of another vehicle line to make a new sports utility vehicle. Chattanooga also should benefit by the growth of a number of startup tech companies drawn to the "Gig City" and its new Innovation District.
Haslam said his free two-year community college offer through Tennessee Promise also is helping his "Drive to 55" effort to get 55 percent of adults to get a college degree or certification by a trade school within the next decade.
"There has never been a better time to be a Tennessean," said Randy Boyd, commissioner of Economic and Community Development. "Tennessee is coming off back-to-back years of record job commitments from our corporate partners. Most importantly, this Brookings report indicates that our state is getting higher paying jobs that will have a meaningful impact on Tennessee residents, with big gains among engineering, computer science and automotive-related jobs since 2013."
In total, advanced industries in Tennessee produced $39.7 billion in output last year, accounting for 14.3 percent of the state's economic output.
According to Brookings, advanced industry jobs in Tennessee pay $70,784 on average per year, considerably higher than the average salary for all industries statewide last year of $45,696.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.