MANUFACTURING BACK ON TRACK; REPORT FINDS REGION HAS GROWING NUMBER OF JOBS.

Byline: Jason Takenouchi Daily News Staff Writer

The Santa Clarita Valley's manufacturing industry emerged from this decade's recession with better jobs and a strong core, according to a new report.

The annual survey by the nonprofit Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. found that manufacturing employment in the Santa Clarita area grew to 11,031 jobs in the first quarter of 1998, a 22.4 percent increase over the similar period in 1995.

Manufacturing employment in 1998 was nearly equal to job levels in 1991, when 11,322 people were employed in the sector, according to the Economic Development Corp.

But Mike Haviland, economic development manager for the city of Santa Clarita, said the strong 1998 numbers may understate manufacturing growth in the area.

``My sense is that we've really powered back,'' he said. ``I'd say we're way ahead of where we've been in the past.''

But overall job growth was not the only good news in last week's Economic Development Corp. survey.

The report also said most employment growth in the Santa Clarita area has been in the higher-paying durable manufacturing sector.

Durable goods include electronics, aerospace products and furniture. Nondurable goods include food products and apparel.

In 1995, the area had 6,512 jobs in the durable sector and 2,497 jobs in nondurable manufacturing. Three years later, durable manufacturing jobs stood at 8,162, a 25 percent increase over 1995.

The growth of such jobs should be good news for employees, analysts say.

``You tend to have a higher wage rate in durable manufacturing,'' said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Economic Development Corp.

But Kyser said the increasing importance of such jobs might also make the area more vulnerable to a downturn.

``Durables tend to be a bit more susceptible to the vagaries of the business cycle,'' he said.

The San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys were among the bright spots in the report, which was culled from state Economic Development Department statistics.

In the Antelope Valley, manufacturing jobs declined from 7,354 in 1995 to 6,792 in 1998. Analysts attribute most of that loss to cutbacks in military-related aerospace manufacturing.

Much of the growth in the Santa Clarita Valley's manufacturing sector has been in the Valencia Industrial Center and the Valencia Commerce Center, two industrial parks developed by The Newhall Land and Farming Company.

``With the industrial space that has been absorbed in the Valencia Commerce and Valencia Industrial centers in the past several years, it's not surprising that there's strong growth in light manufacturing,'' said Marlee Lauffer, spokeswoman for Newhall Land. ``Since that report there's been even more growth.''

Lauffer said land sold by the company in Valencia in 1998 probably will add 5,000 more jobs to Valencia's employment base. Roughly half of those jobs will be in the manufacturing sector, she said.

The vacancy rate for valley industrial space is just 4.17 percent, according to Craig Peters, senior vice president for CB Richard Ellis.

Peters said that low rate is being driven by a combination of state-of-the-art buildings, safe areas and a large work force living in the valley.

``There's a tremendous amount of user demand going into the area,'' he said.