COVER STORY
of plane doors and center wing sections for jets made by Boeing,
Gulfstream and Embraer, but mostly Boeing.
Robinson began at the factory next to Martin County Airport,
known then as Witham Field, working for a company that was
Grumman when she started, later becoming Northrop Grumman,
then Vought and now Triumph Aerospace Structures, part of the
Triumph Group, headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania. It is no
coincidence that she began at the plant 38 years ago, and it was
38 years ago that a Boeing 767 took its first flight. Stuart has supplied
the 767 since its start. The factory itself began as a Grumman
plant in the 1950s.
Robinson is one of more than 10,000 manufacturing workers
on the Treasure Coast. In 2017, the number of manufacturing jobs
here topped 10,000 for the first time, according to U.S. Census records
dating to 2001. Collectively, those workers were paid about
$600 million in wages in 2017, also a record.
“The manufacturing sector has been growing rapidly in the
Treasure Coast over the last 10 years,” says William Fruth, president
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Indian River 2.064 2,393 2,265 2,199 2,282
Martin 3,469 3,451 3,646 3,581 3,721
St. Lucie 2,934 3,274 3,488 3,822 4,008
Treasure Coast 8,467 9,118 9,399 9,602 10,011
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of economic analysis firm POLICOM.
POLICOM each year ranks U.S. metropolitan areas on economic
strength and the long-term likelihood that they grow in economic
size and quality. By POLICOM calculations, growth in the
number of manufacturing jobs on the Treasure Coast in the last
five years has outpaced 97 percent of the 383 U.S. metro areas
studied. And in the past 10 years, the Treasure Coast ranks 30th of
those metro areas for growth of manufacturing employment.
In the most recent five-year period, ending in 2017, St. Lucie
manufacturing jobs increased 8.8 percent, Indian River grew 3.4
percent and Martin was up 2.6 percent, POLICOM shows. That >>
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Dept of Commerce
1
Manufacturing jobs by county
and Treasure Coast 2013-2017
BERNIE WOODALL
Gina DiGiacomo, left, and Kay Robinson are team leaders at Triumph Aerospace
in Stuart. Triumph makes parts for the Boeing 767 and other jets. The
plant, by the way, does not produce for the Boeing 737 Max narrow bodies
that have been grounded.
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