MT Magazine May/June 2022

THE BIG PICTURE

JOB SHOPS BY THE NUM

Trends in the United States

MOVEMENT FROM CITIES Job Shops , which were once concentrated around major urban areas with clustered customer industries, have been spreading out into suburbs and more rural areas over the last two decades. The most dramatic example is in Los Angeles County, California, where the number of shops has dropped dramatically , and the e ects can be seen as far away as Arizona and Utah. To a lesser degree, the same pattern is cropping up around Seattle with the aerospace industry, Houston with energy extraction and transport, and Detroit with automotive.

The reduction of shops in Los Angeles County demonstrates the migration of shops from urban to suburban areas.

THE MATERIALS The top ten metals machined by job shops are aluminum (1), stainless steel (2), mild steels (3), brass (4), tool steel (5), bronze (6), high-temperature alloys (7), copper (8), titanium (9), and cast iron (10).