Manufacturing Jobs Still On The Up For Local Women

28 Oct, 2012

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“When I met him on my 18th birthday at Stash O’ Neils in 1994, it was love at first sight. He was the best screw maker and I was ready to screw!” – Jeremy Smith and his wife, Danni Spielberg-Smith, of Rockford discuss a fifth baby.

Rockford, IL – Manufacturing jobs for regional men have been on the decline since the mid-1970’s but local women are seeing a boom in manufacturing jobs unlike most regions in the country– a real baby boom.

Despite on-going terrible economic conditions in the Rockford region that were caused by the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs due to selfish and poor business leadership over the last few decades, The United States Bureau of Labor has released key stats in each of the last 37 years that shows women are seeing a real gain in manufacturing while men suffer for work.

Local married woman, Danni Spielberg-Smith, 34, says:

“I’m working on my fifth baby right now.  Jeremy has been out of work since 2001 but we haven’t let it affect our family building goals.  He was one of the region’s top leading screw makers from 1971 til 1987.  When I met him on my 18th birthday at Stash O’ Neils in 1994, it was love at first sight.  He was the best screw maker and I was ready to screw! LOL, no pun intended.  

He being a bit older, was ready to make a family.  We could have never predicted that Rockford would lose it’s power to make screws but we’re doing ok.  The State of IL’s tax payers has taken care of us while Jeremy battles depression, unemployment and retirement soon.  We figured, ‘maybe Jeremy can’t manufacture screws anymore, but I can try to while I’m young and fertile. That’s what we’ve done.”

Single mother, Jill Lonkquist, 20, sees it the same way as Danni, “I can’t find a good man–let alone a bad boy–with a manufacturing job. They gone!  Hell, like I’m going to let that stop me from making my babies when I wants to.  Illinois has been so good to me and my four boys.I don’t know what the big deal is, we make our own manufacturing jobs come to life. It’s so easy, too.  I head on over to Cousins Bar & Grill or Shooters or Sportspage and I find what I needs to get my job done my way. Girl power, yo… I hope my fifth is a girl. These boys be running me ragged LOL.”

You can keep up with regional women who are leading the new manufacturing job wave around Rockford on Facebook.com.