Hexagon AB, a global leader in sensor, software and autonomous solutions, today announced the signing of an agreement to acquire D.P. Technology Corp. ("D.P. Technology), a leading developer and supplier of computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) technology. The ESPRIT CAM System, its flagship solution, is the smart manufacturing solution for any machining application. Supporting any class of [...]

Production occupations are the fastest-growing occupations in 11 states: Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Wisconsin. The largest recent four-year job growth in this occupation category occurred in the state of Rhode Island, where structural metal fabricators and fitters increased from 230 in 2015 to 1,780 in 2019, [...]

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau demonstrates the many contributions of the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing is the fifth largest employer, with 11.9 million workers in the United States in 2018 and an average annual employee payroll of $60,260. The value of shipments rose to $6 trillion in 2018. Nearly six in ten U.S. exporting dollars [...]

Production occupations are growing in even more states, despite below-average wages. According to the BLS, the median annual wage for production occupations – which can include anything from bakers, butchers and food processing workers to fabricators, welders, woodworkers and metal and plastic machine workers – was $36,000 in May 2019. While this figure was lower [...]

Manufacturing production declined 0.3% in September. This suggests that production slowed after progress over the past four months following the 20.1% decline in manufacturing production experienced between February and April due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite progress in recent months, output remained 6.4% below the pre-pandemic pace in February. Manufacturing data have been mostly solid. New [...]

Manufacturing job openings in August reached 460,000, up from 430,000 in July and the best reading since July 2019 (477,000). With that said, nonfarm business job openings declined from 6,697,000 in July to 6,493,000 in August, with fewer postings in construction, financial activities, health care, information and retail trade.  Overall, 13,550,000 Americans were unemployed in August, [...]

We wanted to make sure you saw the latest update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how COVID-19 spreads through the air. A freshly updated CDC webpage now acknowledges that the virus can spread through airborne transmission, which means that infected droplets can suspend in the air for minutes or hours, even if [...]

The State has announced the application portal for the new streamlined Restore program is now open.  Includes increased eligibility allowing even more of Rhode Island’s small businesses the opportunity to apply. Restore Rhode Island grant program Grants are available for up to $15,000 to help small businesses affected by Covid-19 with fixed costs and other [...]