Manufacturing employment in Missouri experienced a slight increase in the past year with 364,988 workers and 8,137 manufacturers, according to the 2013 Missouri Manufacturers Register, an industrial directory published annually by Manufacturers' News Inc. in Evanston, Ill. 

"Missouri continues to see its manufacturing sector improve," says Tom Dubin, president of MNI. "The state's solid infrastructure, educated work force and friendly business environment has been a draw for a variety of enterprises."

Among Missouri's three largest industrial sectors are food products manufacturing with 52,332 industrial jobs, a 1 percent increase; transportation equipment with 42,814 jobs, up 3.2 percent; and industrial machinery and equipment with 42,530 jobs, a 1 percent gain, MNI reports. The directory also finds other industrial sectors that recorded job growth are leather products, up 22 percent; rubber and plastics, a 7.8 percent increase; electronics, representing a 2.3 percent growth; and chemicals, up 1 percent.