Pickwick Manufacturing Services employee Kelly Struve of Mount Auburn tests monitoring instrumentation Tuesday that was fabricated and assembled at the southwest Cedar Rapids plant for a California electronics manufacturer. Liz Martin/SourceMedia Group News

Iowa, viewed by many as a farm state, has lost more than 54,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000.

That’s troubling when you consider that as late as 2006, manufacturing generated 21 percent of the state’s gross domestic product – the total output of goods and services. Only Indiana at 28.1 percent derived a higher portion of its GDP from manufacturing.

Iowa manufacturing employment peaked at about 252,600 in July 2000 and dropped to a low of about 198,100 in July 2009 before starting a slow rebound, according to Iowa Workforce Development.

The state is placing a heavy bet on the future of wind energy as the potential source of jobs to replace those lost in traditional industries.

Since 1989, Iowa’s manufacturing sector has gradually lost jobs to other states and other countries.

In the mid-1980s, the industrial machinery sector experienced significant job loss when FMC and Harnischfeger closed plants in Cedar Rapids.

The Midand Forge plant in southwest Cedar Rapids, which closed earlier this year, is drawing serious inquiries from other manufacturers. Iowa has lost more than 54,500 manufacturing jobs since 2000. Liz Martin/SourceMedia Group News

The October 2007 closing of Maytag plants in Newton cost the state more than 1,000 manufacturing jobs. The Flood of 2008 eliminated 260 jobs when the Norwood Souvenir and Swiss Valley Farms plants in Cedar Rapids did not reopen.

The Midland Forge and Sealed Air-Cryovac plants in Cedar Rapids closed earlier this year, eliminating more than 400 jobs. Across the state, John Morrell Co. closed its pork processing plant in Sioux City in April, eliminating all 1,450 hourly and salaried jobs.

On a more positive note, Whirlpool Amana and American Profol have recalled laid-off workers and have been hiring for new product lines. Skogman Commercial Realty, which is marketing the Midland Forge plant, has had serious inquiries from a number of companies.

Tom Barnes, Barnes Manufacturing Services

The Iowa Department of Economic Development, Priority One in Cedar Rapids and the Iowa City Area Development Group are working to attract foreign and domestic wind-turbine manufacturers and component suppliers.

David Osterberg, executive director of the Iowa Policy Project in Iowa City, said wind and other forms of renewable energy have the potential to replace manufacturing jobs lost over the past 20 years.

“Nothing in the energy sector is growing as fast as wind in the world,” Osterberg said. “It’s growing at a rate that doubles every three years, and I don’t see that slowing down.”

Barnes Manufacturing Services in Marion, which lost business when Goss Graphic Systems in Cedar Rapids closed abruptly in September 2001, saw work pick up when Clipper Windpower and Acciona North America opened assembly plants in Iowa.

“We were hoping that wind would be the answer to the business we lost, and I still think it will be,” said Tom Barnes, president of Barnes Manufacturing.

David Osterberg, Iowa Policy Project

The recession that started in late 2007 slowed the growth of the wind industry in the United States. Barnes Manufacturing and other suppliers were forced to slash expenses to survive.

“We have a lot of catching up to do, because our employees have taken wage and salary cuts,” Barnes said. “To have a business, I have to have a building with equipment, and I’ve protected that. My next goal is to take care of my employees.”

Barnes said his mood has improved in recent months as he has spoken with representatives of foreign companies making sizable investments in U.S. wind-turbine plants.

“They’re apologizing for the delay, but we expect to start exchanging money for product in the last quarter of 2011,” he said.

Walt Corey, president of Pickwick Manufacturing Services in Cedar Rapids, said Iowa’s durable goods manufacturing sector began to see an improvement in business early in the year before the economic slowdown affected Europe.

Walt Corey, Pickwick Manufacturing Services

“Things have backed off a bit, but we’re staying at an acceptable level and continue to be very optimistic,” Corey said. “I think we could be back to where we were (before the slowdown began) within a year.”

Ken Sagar, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, said Iowa and the nation, which has seen industrial employment plunge to 9.1 percent of all employment, must do a better job of attracting manufacturing jobs that pay the wages needed to support a middle-class lifestyle.

“We’ve got to start manufacturing again in this country and stop outsourcing production overseas,” he said. “We’re one of the few developed countries in the world without a comprehensive industrial policy.”