Manufacturers are seeing more signs that the U.S. economic recovery is on a solid footing, opening the way for new hiring as well as call-backs for factory workers laid off during the depths of the recession.
Caterpillar Inc., the Peoria, Ill.-based heavy-equipment maker, has brought back 600 workers in the past 60 days, including 100 recalled to an engine plant in Indiana last week. Allen Edmonds Shoe Corp. has been relying on overtime to meet growing demand, but is now preparing to start adding new workers at its U.S. plants in coming weeks.
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that industrial production, which includes utility and mining output, as well as manufacturing, rose 0.9% in January, the seventh straight monthly increase. Factory output rose a solid 1%, with improvement across a wide range of industries, including apparel and appliances. Output of motor vehicles and parts was particularly strong, rising 4.9%, which economists attributed to pent-up demand and government incentives that fueled traffic to dealers.
Factories have been a relative bright spot so far in this recovery, last month adding 11,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis. That's the first increase since before the downturn began more than two years ago.
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