Area Development
The 100 largest metro areas in the United States lost 3.2 million manufacturing jobs in the last 10 years, according to new data recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's the equivalent of seeing, on average, 878 jobs evaporate every day.

This past March manufacturers in America's 100 major markets employed 6.71 million workers, reported an analysis story by American City Business Journals. In contrast, a decade earlier 9.91 million people were employed in those same markets in March 2001. That's a huge 32 percent drop in manufacturing jobs in a relatively short time period.

All but 1 of the 100 manufacturing markets - Bakersfield, Calif. -- experienced job loss in this important sector. Among those cities posting significant manufacturing job losses in 10 years were New York City (down 254,600 jobs), Chicago (down 209,300), Detroit (down 174,800), Philadelphia (down 102,500) and Boston (down 100,500).

In particular, hard-hit Los Angeles lost an average of 80 manufacturing jobs every day (292,400).

An interactive online database allowing sorting of the manufacturing statistics for March 2011 in various categories can be found here.