KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Edgewell Personal Care joins other manufacturing companies in the region that plan to close soon. The East Knoxville plant is expected to close by the end of 2027.
Bill Fox is a University of Tennessee economics professor emeritus and special advisor to the Chancellor. He said the change in manufacturing job growth has been a longstanding trend.
“If we take a really long-term view of it back, let’s say to the early 1980s, we had this huge reduction in the share of our employment that was in manufacturing that continued for 25, 30 years,” he said. “We’ve moved to higher value-added jobs. What has continued to happen, though, is that manufacturing has not, in total, been the job creation part of the economy. We’re seeing it in leisure and hospitality, in healthcare, for example.”…