If you're looking for work you could do much worse than get a job in manufacturing, especially in Rockford.

That's all according to a new study by SmartAsset.

We examined the best places to work in manufacturing by considering the percentage of the workforce employed by the manufacturing industry, job and income growth and how average incomes compare to median annual housing costs in each metro area.

Rockford ranked 9th overall in the "Best Places to Work in Manufacturing" list from SmartAsset.

The number of manufacturing jobs in Rockford, Illinois has remained relatively flat over the past several years. Though they had a slight increase of 0.6% from 2016 to 2017, over a longer time period of 2014 through 2017, the number of manufacturing jobs decreased by 0.5%. Despite this, Rockford performs in the top 20% of the study for the four other metrics we considered, which contributes to its No. 9 spot overall. About 24.3% of the workforce worked in manufacturing in 2017, and average incomes increased by 11.2% from 2016 to 2017, the highest increase of any metro in our top 10 and 19th-highest overall.

 

Couple that along with what SmartAsset says is 16.4% of "median annual housing costs divided by average income of manufacturing workers" translates to area residents with manufacturing jobs can live a real decent life in Rockford.

Do you think the study done by SmartAsset is right on or doesn't make sense? Let us know!

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Sweet Lenny is the brand manager of 97ZOK, Q98.5, and Operations Manager for Townsquare Media Rockford. Catch him afternoons 3 to 7 on 97ZOK. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and like his page on Facebook.

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