Thursday, February 21, 2002

Exploring the Reasons Industry Leaves N.J.

By ALLISON PRIES, Staff Writer, Bergen Record

With layoffs continuing and a hazy economic forecast, Reps. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., held a hearing Wednesday at Passaic City Hall exploring ways to stimulate the downtrodden manufacturing sector.

The marketplace has become more competitive and technologically reliant since the 10-year exodus, 1977-87, when the United States lost more than 1 million manufacturing jobs, testified Robert L. Loderstedt, president and CEO of the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program, a non-profit corporation that guides small to midsize companies and workers in being more productive, profitable, and competitive.

New Jersey is ranked 14th in the country in the number of manufacturers, 12,500, Loderstedt said.

"The modern industrial base of New Jersey includes our pharmaceutical powerhouses, producers of advanced electronic equipment and machine tools, and firms in the vanguard of highly engineered plastics and special alloys," he said.

Still, many other industries and small businesses suffer in the shadows of the state's corporate giants. Jacob N. Yecies, CEO of the Fairfield-based industrial supply company Herman W. Yecies Inc., told of his staff shrinking from 20 employees 15 years ago, to six.

"Manufacturing, as I think of it, will, in all likelihood, never return to New Jersey." he said. "Metal working and heavy industry have been legislated, taxed and badgered out of the state," he said.

James A. Mitchell, marketing specialist for the New Jersey Institute of Technology's Defense Procurement Center (which helped small New Jersey businesses win more than $550 million in government contracts since its inception 16 years ago), encouraged businesses to "leverage competitive preferences made available by Congress in the area of certification. ... Ø possibly leveling the playing field."

He also encouraged small firms to market to larger ones, since 99 percent of all large businesses are government contractors and therefore required to do business with small companies.

"[Manufacturing is] the backbone of this country," Loderstedt said. "Somebody needs to stand up and tell manufacturers that they're important."

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