The number of Missouri manufacturing firms and industrial jobs has declined.

The number of manufacturing companies decreased by 156, or about 1.5 percent over 12 months, to 9,509, reveal latest statistics in the 1999 edition of "Missouri Manufacturers Register." During the same period, industrial jobs dropped by 1,300, to 454,059.

That total wipes out the 1,300-job increase in industrial employment during he same period a year ago.

Like the state, Cape Girardeau city experienced a decrease in the number of manufacturing plants, from 91 to 88, but was on the plus side in the number of industrial jobs.

Jackson experienced a loss of 82 jobs during the period.

Statewide totals still show some big numbers in manufacturing:

-- 9,509 manufacturers.

-- 454,059 manufacturing jobs.

"This is a trend that we've seen in other states," said Thomas Dubin, president of Manufacturers' News Inc. of Evanston, Ill., which publishes manufacturing registers for a number of states. The Missouri register gives detailed information about industrial plants in 662 towns in Missouri for September 1997 through August 1998.

Manufacturing activity and output are still at record highs, said Dubin. But industrial employment is stagnant or declining.

"Much of that has to do with the nature of today's manufacturing," said Dubin. "Thanks to automation and technology, fewer employees are needed. Instead of four low-skilled workers on an assembly line, you may now have one worker entering numerical codes into a computer that controls the manufacturing process."

Manufacturing is still the state's leading industry. In an earlier report this year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which categorizes several different industries into 10 major groups, reported that manufacturing has remained the leading Missouri industry for the past dozen years, with 21.3 percentage points on a scale of 100 points.

Second on the list is the services industry, at 19.2 percent of Missouri's Gross State Product. Rounding out the top five on the list are finance-insurance-real estate, 14.3 percent; government, 11.1 percent; and transportation and public utilities, 10.7 percent, just ahead of the retail trade, 10 percent.

Cape Girardeau County was well represented on the list of manufacturers and jobs.

Cape Girardeau city was listed No. 12 on the number-of-plants chart, with 88, accounting for 3,555 jobs. That was up from the 3,550 of last year and good for the 22nd position on the list.

Jackson, which includes the Procter & Gamble Paper Products Co. plant, with 1,325 jobs, was No. 24 on the jobs list, with 3,107 manufacturing jobs, giving the county a total of 6,657 jobs.

The county's industrial job count could change in the near future. P&G is in the middle of a $350 million expansion that will add up to 350 jobs, and LeeRowan Co. of Jackson is expanding its plant, which will add another 100 jobs.

Manufacturing jobs are third on the jobs-by-category list in Cape Girardeau County.

The services industry provides the biggest chunk of jobs in the county, at almost 10,000. It is followed by retail jobs, with more than 8,000, and manufacturing, with more than 6,600.

Other Cape Girardeau County jobs categories include construction, agriculture and mining, about 2,200 jobs; transportation, communications and public utilities, about 2,300; finance, insurance and real estate, about 2,000; wholesale, about 2,100; and government, about 4,400.

St. Louis, Missouri's industrial leader, is home to 1,993 manufacturing plants and 104,306 manufacturing jobs. Kansas City ranks second with 843 plants and 49,291 manufacturing jobs. Rounding out the top five in the state, Springfield houses 384 plants and 21,557 industrial jobs, Fenton has 161 plants and 12,801 jobs, and Joplin has 161 plants and 7,098 jobs.

According to the 1999 report, the top 10 industrial cities in the state experienced a net decrease of 97 plants and an employment decrease of about 3,700 jobs.