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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 1:46 p.m., Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Hawaii manufacturing jobs fell 2.2% last year

Advertiser Staff

Hawaii lost lost 569 manufacturing jobs last year, a 2.2 percent drop in the industrial sector workforce, according to a report from Manufacturers' News Inc.

"As with the entire nation, Hawaii's industrial employment is suffering due to stagnating demand and weaker exports," said Tom Dubin, President of the Evanston, IL-based publishing company.

The local data were published in the company's annual Hawaii Manufacturers Directory.

Hawaii is home to 1,211 manufacturers employing 24,911 workers, according Manufacturers' News. Employment in the food products sector, which accounts for nearly 40 percent of all Hawaii's industrial employment, fell 1.3 percent to 9,688 jobs. Printing and publishing, the second largest sector by employment, was virtually unchanged at 4,035 jobs. Textiles and apparel, third-largest with 2,544 jobs, experienced a 5.3 percent decline.