Explore New Industries - Letter to Editor

September 5th, 2008 at 11:55am Bob Trojan

Today’s Letter to the Editor states two issues; one that I agree with….”Rockford is an undiscovered gem…..”

http://www.rrstar.com/opinions/letters/x1001334524/Explore-new-industries

And one that I disagree with…”city’s unemployment rate around 10% because of the foundering manufacturing sector….”

I don’t know where the author got his facts, but from those that I see, many of those unemployed are in the services and construction industries, not manufacturing.  It’s even not fair to put the Chrysler situation into the big hat of manufacturing and then say the same thing.  While Chrysler is an important contributor of employment in manufacturing, they mske up a small % of total manufacturing employment.  Facts: this region employs around 33,000 manufacturing people and has over 1,000 manufacturing companies, many employing 100 or fewer people.  Many that I know are always looking for skilled workers, many are doing very well in their sales and most are hard working, family or personally owned.  They don’t need comments such as the one from the Letter published today.

Entry Filed under: Economy