Manufacturing Adds 15,000 Jobs In June

July 7, 2006

After dropping 8,000 jobs in May, the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy added 15,000 jobs in June, the U.S. Labor Department reported on July 7. Among producers of durable goods, the department's data show primary metals, fabricated metal ...

John McClenahen

After dropping 8,000 jobs in May, the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy added 15,000 jobs in June, the U.S. Labor Department reported on July 7.

Among producers of durable goods, the department's data show primary metals, fabricated metal products, machinery, computer and electronic products, electrical equipment and appliances, and transportation equipment adding to payrolls last month. Among makers of nondurables, food, beverage and tobacco products, printing, chemicals, and plastics and rubber products added employees.

There were some job losses in manufacturing in June. Among durable goods manufacturers, wood products shaved 2,600 workers last month; non-metallic mineral products lost 1,200; and furniture scratched 1,100. Among makers of non-durable goods, textile mills were the big loser, unraveling 2,400 jobs.

The overall U.S. nonfarm economy, of which manufacturing is a part, generated 121,000 new jobs in June, an increase of 29,000 jobs from May's upwardly revised figure of 92,000. Nevertheless, June's employment gain fell short of some economists' forecasts of as many as 165,000 new jobs as well as the 150,000 jobs the economy needs to create each month just to keep up with population growth.

The overall U.S. unemployment rate in June was 4.6%, unchanged from May.

About the Author

John McClenahen | Former Senior Editor, IndustryWeek

John S. McClenahen, is an occasional essayist on the Web site of IndustryWeek, the executive management publication from which he retired in 2006. He began his journalism career as a broadcast journalist at Westinghouse Broadcasting’s KYW in Cleveland, Ohio. In May 1967, he joined Penton Media Inc. in Cleveland and in September 1967 was transferred to Washington, DC, the base from which for nearly 40 years he wrote primarily about national and international economics and politics, and corporate social responsibility.

      McClenahen, a native of Ohio now residing in Maryland, is an award-winning writer and photographer. He is the author of three books of poetry, most recently An Unexpected Poet (2013), and several books of photographs, including Black, White, and Shades of Grey (2014). He also is the author of a children’s book, Henry at His Beach (2014).

      His photograph “Provincetown: Fog Rising 2004” was selected for the Smithsonian Institution’s 2011 juried exhibition Artists at Work and displayed in the S. Dillon Ripley Center at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., from June until October 2011. Five of his photographs are in the collection of St. Lawrence University and displayed on campus in Canton, New York.

      John McClenahen’s essay “Incorporating America: Whitman in Context” was designated one of the five best works published in The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies during the twelve-year editorship of R. Barry Leavis of Rollins College. John McClenahen’s several journalism prizes include the coveted Jesse H. Neal Award. He also is the author of the commemorative poem “Upon 50 Years,” celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Wolfson College Cambridge, and appearing in “The Wolfson Review.”

      John McClenahen received a B.A. (English with a minor in government) from St. Lawrence University, an M.A., (English) from Western Reserve University, and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University, where he also pursued doctoral studies. At St. Lawrence University, he was elected to academic honor societies in English and government and to Omicron Delta Kappa, the University’s highest undergraduate honor. John McClenahen was a participant in the 32nd Annual Wharton Seminars for Journalists at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During the Easter Term of the 1986 academic year, John McClenahen was the first American to hold a prestigious Press Fellowship at Wolfson College, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.

      John McClenahen has served on the Editorial Board of Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies and was co-founder and first editor of Liberal Studies at Georgetown. He has been a volunteer researcher on the William Steinway Diary Project at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and has been an assistant professorial lecturer at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.