Before the COVID-19 pandemic, McLean County, Illinois, was chiefly recognized as the home of State Farm Insurance in Bloomington and Illinois State University in Normal. Now, the county exemplifies a growing trend of factory jobs in smaller cities with lower living costs. Rivian electric vehicles and Ferrero’s Kinder Bueno candies are now major employers. “Food and electric cars. This is not something we were known for before 2019,” said Patrick Hoban, president of Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council.
McLean County, once an insurance and university hub, is witnessing a manufacturing surge with Rivian’s workforce expanding from 300 to 8,000 employees. This growth reflects the broader trend of manufacturing job recovery between 2019 and 2023, marking the first full rebound since the 1970s recession, according to a report from the Economic Innovation Group. Manufacturing jobs in the U.S. increased slightly to 12.9 million in 2023, surpassing 2019 levels, though still below the 1979 peak.
Joseph McCartin, a labor history expert from Georgetown University, noted that manufacturing has been recovering since 2010, despite a COVID-19 interruption. The Biden administration’s policies aimed to boost wages and jobs through the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. “The Biden administration tried to use policy to ensure that more of these would be union jobs or at least offer union-level wages,” McCartin said. However, potential deportations under a new Trump administration could impact industries dependent on immigrant labor, according to William Jones, a University of Minnesota professor.
Where growth happened
Small urban areas like McLean County saw the most significant manufacturing job growth from 2019 to 2023, with rural areas losing jobs and large cities experiencing no change. The Economic Innovation Group report highlights that Sun Belt and Western states, especially Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, led this growth. States like Alabama and Mississippi benefited from increased automotive jobs due to lower costs and right-to-work laws, with Alabama seeing a 7,800 job increase.
Nevada is diversifying its economy beyond tourism, with automotive and battery manufacturing playing critical roles. Storey County, near Reno, has grown significantly, with its job market expanding from under 4,000 to nearly 16,000 in 15 years. Steve Scheetz of the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development attributes this to companies like Tesla and Redwood Materials.
The Biden administration has focused on bringing blue-collar jobs to smaller cities, a strategy targeting politically Republican areas. However, results were mixed, as Vice President Kamala Harris carried McLean County but lost Storey County by a wide margin.
Blue-collar wages
Despite union declines and cheaper overseas labor, manufacturing remains a promising path for blue-collar workers, with wages averaging $34.42 per hour—higher than hospitality or retail. However, recent Southern states’ legislative actions have challenged labor movements aimed at improving worker conditions. Alabama’s law retracting state incentives for companies recognizing unions exemplifies this shift, with GOP leaders in Georgia and Tennessee enacting similar measures.
Alabama’s manufacturing growth, concentrated in the north, is fueled by investments such as Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, which plans to hire 6,000 workers. Supply-chain challenges during the pandemic highlighted the benefits of American-made goods. Nonetheless, McCartin warns that without union backing, modern factory workers may not achieve the middle-class status of past generations. “The growth of manufacturing itself is unlikely to become a panacea for what ails working-class America,” he stated.
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