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One area of the state where manufacturing had been on the upswing was Frederick County.
The county had 190 manufacturers providing 5,592 jobs and employed 7 percent of the county's workforce in 2007, with average annual wages of $52,104, according to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
"Frederick is one of the emerging [manufacturing] areas of the state," said Gene Burner, president of the Manufacturers' Alliance of Maryland. Smaller manufacturers, particularly those in the biotechnology or high-tech arenas, continue to fare well, he said.
Burner, former director of the state Department of Assessments and Taxation, has also served on the staff of legislative fiscal committees and was vice president of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.
Many Frederick County manufacturers benefit from the stability of federal contracts, but Burner said the future of how federal policy will affect manufacturers, particularly defense-oriented companies, is uncertain.
Since 2007, however, the county has seen some of its manufacturers experience a downturn.
Structural Systems Inc., which produces building parts such as trusses, consolidated its Frederick offices into its Thurmont manufacturing center. The company did not immediately announce layoffs, but then announced in November that it would cut 110 employees from its staff of about 300, according to a state labor department filing.
In October, BP Solar announced an end to its $97 million manufacturing expansion project that was to add 70 jobs. While BP is completing the $30 million building, it will not purchase the $67 million worth of manufacturing equipment it had planned.
Also that month in the Adamstown area, the last nine workers at Alcoa Eastalco Works were laid off, and Essroc Materials closed its cement manufacturing plant and laid off all but seven of its 90 workers.
Essroc had long planned to decommission the Frederick plant in the next two years, but accelerated those plans for financial reasons. The slumping economy has taken a significant toll on the cement industry, along with Essroc's roster of residential and commercial developers, spokesman Marco Barbesta said.
"I can't hide the reality that the economy has had an impact," Barbesta said.
Other manufacturers are responding to the recession in their own way. Executives at Redland Brick in Thurmont have cut their brick machine to half-speed.
Some bright spots
Stulz Air Technology System, with roughly 300 workers, is among the few manufacturers still thriving.
The company, based in Germany with U.S. manufacturing operations in Frederick, was hiring in 2008 and anticipates continued growth this year, said marketing administrator Anne Shubert. Its U.S. annual revenues average $6 million. Worldwide, the company has 4,000 employees and boasts $1 billion in revenues. Formerly called Air Technology Systems, the Frederick company was acquired by Stulz in 2001.
"Ours is still a good story," Shubert said. "We're increasing business every year since we were acquired. … It's going to be another record-breaking year for us. We don't anticipate seeing much of an influence from the downfall of the economy."
Shubert said Stulz has been growing because it has been claiming more market share from its larger competitor in Ohio and because air controls for data centers and the restaurant industry continue to be in high demand. It also launched a green air-conditioning system that reduces energy costs.
"Every big [information technology] company in the world is building new data centers," Shubert said. "As long as IT continues to grow, we will, too."
Meanwhile, James R. Hill Jr., CEO of Frederick's Metropolitan Steel, took one of the more unusual tracks in response to the recession last year: He gave his employees $600 each to stimulate the local economy.
