The Virginia Manufacturers Directory reports employment fell by 2.2 percent from October 2009 to October 2010. Virginia currently employs 336,333 workers in the industry, according to the directory.

It's the second year in a row that industrial employment has declined, though this year's decline is far less than the losses from a year before.

“Virginia’s industrial sectors continue to be battered by the housing bust and the recession,“ Tom Dubin, president of Manufacturers’ News, told Virginia Business magazine. “However, we’re definitely seeing fewer job losses than we did a year ago, and new manufacturing facilities continue to emerge.“