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Manufacturing employment locally has been sliced in half during the past decade, but the industry that has long been the lifeblood of the Dayton region is far from dead.

The reason: local companies have fought to adapt by diversifying the type of clients they serve while going lean and investing in technology upgrades.

After losing more than 42,000 manufacturing jobs during the last decade — more than half of the jobs that existed in 2000 — employment is expected to remain flat this year, according to the most recent Wright State University Regional Economic Report. That report covers the four-county Dayton Metropolitan Statistical area.

Although the industry took a beating, many of the region’s manufacturers survived and some are even reporting the highest backlog of orders in two years.

(Click here to access database of more than 200 local manufacturers and sort by areas of expertise.)

As manufacturing begins to recover, observers say Dayton’s biggest strength lies in its diversity. The diverse manufacturing base can act as a magnet, attracting interest from outside companies, which means more opportunity for local suppliers.

From the common tool and die work to rapid prototyping to heat treating and laser cutting, the region boats a wide array of capabilities.

“We’re no longer an automotive region and actually I think that’s a good thing,” said Jim Whalen, chief executive officer of Dayton-based GemCity Engineering and Manufacturing. “We have many niche companies now that serve a wide range of industries. They’ve become the backbone of local manufacturing.”

GemCity — a contract maker of specialized equipment and products, such as reconnaissance robots used by the military — uses sources from around the globe for its services and supplies. But often, Whalen said, the company buys from local companies business

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Apartment rental and vacancy rates for properties in the Raleigh-Durham region improved in first half of 2010, as demand strengthened and new construction slowed.

The average vacancy rate for the 103,383 apartment units tracked by apartment market research firm Real Data of Charlotte improved to 8.7 percent in July compared to a rate of 9.9 percent in January and a rate of 10.4 percent in July 2009, when the market’s vacancy rate peaked.

Renters signed to lease 2,912 vacant units between February and July, which was an improvement over the absorption of 604 units during the same period a year ago.

The Triangle apartment market’s average rental rate was $786 in July, which was up by 2.5 percent in the past six months. New apartments that are still in the lease-up stage have the highest average rental rate in the market, at $1,017 per month.

Real Data projects that average rents and occupancy levels will continue to rise over the next year as demand increases and new construction remains tempered.

Only 1,273 apartment units were under construction in July, Real Data’s report states, which compares to 3,234 units that were under construction the year prior Same day payday loans. Another 1,137 units are proposed to be built in the Triangle, but many projects have been put on hold due to lack of financing.

Apartment communities that are under construction include the following:

• Alexan Garrett Farms, with 116 units on U.S. 15-501 in central Durham.

• Final phase of American Tobacco Campus’ remaining 17 apartment units in downtown Durham.

• Trinity Commons, with 335 units on Douglas Street in Durham.

• Chapel Hill North, with 123 units on Airport Road in Chapel Hill.

• Landings at Winmore, with 60 units on Winmore Avenue in Carrboro.

• Meridian at Wakefield, with 369 units on Capital Boulevard in north Raleigh.

• Final phase of Chancery Village at the Park, with 42 units in Cary.

• Final phase of Grace Park, with 24 units on Davis Drive in Morrisville.

• Swift Creek Commons, with 196 units on West Chatham Street in Cary.

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Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC) bounced back from a loss of $39.9 million, or 26 cents per share, during the second quarter last year to a profit of $9.1 million, or 6 cents per share, this past quarter, the company announced Monday night.

Total revenue for the quarter was $224.8 million, a 25 percent increase from the comparable period last year.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Range has its regional base in Canonsburg, Pa., and is one of the most active drillers in the Marcellus Shale. According to the earnings release, by the end of June the company “had drilled 146 horizontal Marcellus wells to date of which 29 are awaiting completion and four are awaiting pipeline hook up easy payday loans.”

The company stated that Marcellus production “continues to exceed expectations.”

“Drilling rigs are becoming more efficient as are completions and production operations,” the report stated. “These efficiencies, coupled with being ahead of schedule on production volumes, are allowing us to add an additional $210 million of capital to the Marcellus project in 2010.”

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ZHONGSHAN, China — Striking workers at a Honda auto parts factory in southeastern China have won higher wages — but not necessarily for themselves.

Factory managers began hiring a steady stream of replacement workers on Sunday, and a significant number of strikers went back to work after increases in wages and benefits, even as many others remained on strike.

The 20 or so members of the factory’s council of workers, chosen by the workers to represent them when the strike began on Wednesday, went into hiding over the weekend, fearing retaliation by the authorities.

It is too early to tell whether the apparent resolution of this strike — somewhat higher wages but lost jobs for many of the strikers — will set a pattern elsewhere as labor unrest spreads. Workers in the industrial southeast of China and elsewhere have been turning a labor shortage to their advantage by demanding better pay and working conditions.

But in Zhongshan, Honda has used the area job market to its advantage.

The Honda Lock parts factory in Zhongshan can run on lower-skilled, less-educated workers than the Honda transmission factory in Foshan, a two-hour drive to the northwest payday loans for bad credit. The Foshan strike brought the company’s auto-assembly operations in China to a temporary standstill — and the regular work force there was lured back to its jobs with reportedly much larger wage increases than Honda is offering in Zhongshan.

Replacement workers and returning employees in Zhongshan are receiving 11 percent higher pay and a 33 percent rise in allowances for food and housing, as of Sunday. The combined increase in wages and benefits was considerably less than the near doubling of wages alone that the strikers had sought. Even so, the improved compensation — wages of $152 a month and an allowance of $59 a month — was enough to make the jobs attractive to replacement workers.

The remaining strikers held a small rally outside the factory on Sunday morning but then went home and made no effort to picket as operations resumed.

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Georgia’s average gas prices are down seven cents a gallon from last week as the price of crude oil continued its fall, according to AAA Auto Club South.

The average price per gallon in Georgia is $2.71, compared with $2.78 the week prior, $2.73 a month ago and $2.27 a year ago.

The national average price of unleaded regular gasoline is $2.80 per gallon.

The price of crude oil was down for the third week amid concerns the financial crisis in Europe will worsen and put a halt on global economic recovery. Crude oil closed Friday at $70.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The European crisis has pushed the value of the euro down 12 percent against the dollar and is one of the major factors that has caused the price of crude to decrease, AAA said payday lenders. At the same time, U.S. stockpiles of crude grew for the 15th week.

“The possibility that Europe’s financial problems will slow global demand at a time when U.S. demand is already slow to rise has investors worried,” said Jessica Brady, AAA spokeswoman, in a statement. “The lack of demand can be seen in the constant increase in U.S. stockpiles of crude that are now well above 362 million barrels. Lower retail gasoline prices are always welcomed by consumers, and they can expect to see just that as retail prices drop again this week.”

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World Vision is launching a microfinance site that allows donors to lend directly to small borrowers in developing nations.

The Federal Way, Wash.-based international charity has created World Vision Micro, a website that allows donors to give to entrepreneurs in developing nations who are seeking capital to start or expand their businesses.

The model is similar to Kiva.org, a San Francisco-based organization that connects individual lenders with individual borrowers. The microfinance industry actually uses several models, including Seattle’s Global Partnerships, which allocates investor or philanthropic capital to nonprofit lenders in developing nations that then distribute microloans or other financial services.

Under its new service, World Vision will approve applicants and pay their loans up front. Then the loan is posted on the website where donors can select it and pay for it; that money that is used to repay World Vision. Donors can search loans based on business type, gender of the borrower, location and size. Once the entrepreneur pays back the loan, the capital is recycled to pay for future loans.

World Vision already has a broad portfolio of microloans worth about $346 million, but the new site aims to enable individuals to make direct microloans. According to World Vision, the new microloan site has funded more than 850 loans worth a combined $230,000.

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Making up for lost revenue under a new federal law that restricts interest rate charges, many credit card issuers have been slapping new fees on cardholders.

Among the highest I’ve seen are a $99 annual fee just for having the card and a $60 fee unless cardholders charge at least $2,400 in a year.

So, what to do? Are we better off canceling a card to avoid unwanted fees or will doing so cost us more in the long run?

"We are advised not to close credit card accounts we no longer use because it will hurt our credit score," wrote a reader in an e-mail representative of dozens I’ve received. "I don’t want to pay any fees. How does closing an account really affect my score?"

For the answer, I turned to Craig Watts, public affairs director for FICO, the company that developed the widely used FICO score (The name comes from Fair Isaac Corp\oration, named after founders Bill Fair and Earl Isaac).

First, a refresher. Lenders use our credit score — a number generally ranging from 300 to 850 — to help them determine how likely we are to pay back a loan on time. The higher our score, the more likely we’ll be approved for a credit card or loan at attractive rates.

In addition, insurance companies, wireless providers, landlords and employers are using credit scores — presumably, a measure of how responsible we are — to help them decide whether to do business with us and on what terms.

That’s why having a good credit score is important. The good news is that if we use only a fraction of our credit limit, closing a credit card account won’t have much of an impact.

The FICO score formula weighs a number of factors on our credit bureau report. The most important is whether we pay on time.

You can go to www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/WhatsInYourScore.aspx for a complete list.

If we have one or more credit cards, the formula considers things such as how long we’ve had each account open, whether we pay on time and the "utilization rate," which is the account balance divided by the credit limit. For example, if we charge $2,000 and our credit limit is $10,000, our utilization rate is 20 percent.

The lower the utilization rate, the better. The formula also considers the utilization rate for all our cards combined. This is the part of the formula most likely to be affected if we close a credit card account.

For example, I have three credit cards, each with a $10,000 credit limit.

I typically charge $2,000 a month on one card and little or nothing on the others. My overall utilization rate is 6.67 percent ($2,000 is 6.67 percent of $30,000). For an explanation of utilization rate, go to www.myfico.com/crediteducation/questions/Credit-Cards-And-Score. aspx.

If you have high balances on one or more credit cards and you close one or more unused accounts, this can increase your overall credit utilization rate and damage your FICO score, Watts said. "To avoid that, you want to close credit accounts when your overall credit utilization rate is very low," he said.

For example, if I were to close one of my rarely used cards, my utilization rate would rise from 6.67 percent to 10 percent ($2,000 in charges and an overall $20,000 credit limit). That rate would still be quite low. Although the FICO site does not recommend a specific utilization rate, many consumer advocates recommend keeping it to less than 50 percent, or even 33 percent.

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Rocky Brands Inc. will stop distributing footwear bearing the Dickies label at the end of the year, the work going to an affiliate of the brand’s owner, the company said late Thursday.

Nelsonville-based Rocky Brands (NASDAQ:RCKY) became the exclusive licensee of Dickies boots after its $100 million acquisition of EJ Footwear Group LLC in 2004. The Franklin, Tenn.-based company was composed of three companies that produced footwear under the Georgia Boot, Durango, Lehigh, John Deere an Dickies brands.

Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Co., based in Fort Worth, Texas, will have its Kodiak Group Holdings Co. develop and market the Dickies footwear business after the licensing accord with Rocky Brands expires Dec. 31.

Rocky CEO Mike Brooks said in a release that “we anticipated it would be difficult for us to retain the Dickies footwear license beyond 2010 and we have been taking steps to replace that business beginning next year. In addition, this decision will allow us the opportunity to dedicate more time and resources to growing our owned brands – Rocky, Georgia Boot, Durango and Lehigh – which carry significantly higher gross margins.”

Dickies boots sales represented about 4 percent of Rocky Brands’ $229.5 million in sales last year, the company said.

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Retail sales soared in March, the government said Wednesday, in the latest sign of improving consumer confidence.

The Commerce Department said total retail sales jumped 1.6% last month, the largest monthly increase since November, from an upwardly revised 0.5% gain in February.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had anticipated that sales would rise 1.2% in the month.

March retail sales surged 7.6% compared to the same month in 2009.

Sales excluding autos and auto parts rose 0.6% last month, also topping forecasts. A consensus of economists had projected sales excluding autos to edge up 0.5% in March.

Sales of motor vehicles and parts posted a strong 6.7% gain, while sales of electronics and appliances fell 1.3%.

"This is another good reading," said Adam York, an economist at Wells Fargo. "But we’re not out of the woods yet."

York said March sales benefited from promotions tied to the Easter holiday, which came earlier than usual this year. He said some of those gains may be shifted over to the April report.

"These are decent numbers," he said. "It suggests that the consumer is recovering, but by no means are we looking at a strong economic recovery."

The rebound in retail sales comes as the labor market has shown tentative signs of improvement. The Labor Department said earlier this month that the economy gained more jobs in March than any other month in the last three years guaranteed pay day loans.

Sales at many of the nation’s retail chains reported strong sales in March due to unusually warm weather, Easter shopping and improved consumer confidence.

Thomson Reuters, which tracks monthly same-store sales for 30 chains including Costco (COST, Fortune 500) and Target (TGT, Fortune 500), said last week that chain stores posted the biggest single monthly sales gain on record in March, extending a run of seven straight monthly increases.

All of this bodes well for the economy, which is driven mainly by consumer spending.

After a prolonged slump, U.S. gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, turned positive in the second half of 2009. But the subsequent gains in GDP have been driven mostly by reductions in business inventories and government stimulus.

The economy remains vulnerable enough for policymakers at the Federal Reserve to maintain interest rates near historic lows to help boost activity.

The Fed will release its latest report on regional economic activity later Wednesday. Separately, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will testify before a joint session of Congress on the economic outlook.  

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The economy seems to be recovering but is "far from being out of the woods," Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke said in a speech Wednesday.

Bernanke, speaking before the Dallas Regional Chamber business group, said unemployment remains one of the "toughest problems" for policymakers, and one that he expects to ease only gradually.

Bernanke said he expects the Fed’s easy money policies and a gathering recovery "will be sufficient to slowly reduce the unemployment rate over the coming year" from its current level of 9.7%. But he admitted that the jobless rate remains a major concern.

"The economy has stabilized and is growing again, although we can hardly be satisfied when 1 out of every 10 U.S. workers is unemployed and family finances remain under great stress," Bernanke said.

The Fed chief also noted that bank lending continues to be weak and inflation expectations stable. Those observations should allow the central bank to continue to hold short-term interest rates near zero percent for what the Fed has called an "extended period" while keeping prices stable.

Fed meeting transcripts released Tuesday show some officials remain concerned that the economy could slip from its recent recovery track in the second half, as companies work through inventories accumulated in the downturn and fiscal stimulus payments slow.

Signs that the recovery is faltering could prompt officials to expand their support for the markets and delay a long-awaited policy tightening.

Investors have been anxious to see the Fed tighten monetary policy after nearly a year and a-half of near-zero interest rates. In the past two months, the Fed has ended a year-long bond purchase program and raised the rate it charges banks for emergency borrowing.

Among those seeing a need to tighten policy is Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig. In a speech Wednesday in New Mexico, he called for the Fed to drop its extended-period commitment and to "sometime soon" begin raising the key fed funds overnight lending target to 1% from its recent range of 0%-0.25%.

That said, the Fed has made clear it’s in no hurry to tighten policy, with the recovery in its earliest stages and so many Americans out of work.

Bernanke also questioned whether still-weak property markets could continue to hamper consumers and the financial system.

"Mortgage delinquencies for both subprime and prime loans continue to rise as do foreclosures," he said. "The commercial real estate sector remains troubled, which is a concern for communities and for banks holding commercial real estate loans."

Bernanke also said the United States must confront its profligate ways sooner rather than later if it is to avoid a fiscal crisis. Americans will have to make tough choices on the balance between higher taxes and lower spending on various priorities, he said.

Investors have been fretting about the nation’s grim budget picture and its need for overseas financing, though a sale of government bonds Wednesday shows demand for U.S. debt hasn’t ebbed.

"Unless we as a nation demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility, in the longer run we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth," Bernanke said. 

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