Industry is a vital economic component. Though industry, new buildings are constructed, old ones are taken down, and the shelves of businesses are stocked with products that are in turn sold to consumers. It's where your front auto plate came from and where it will go when you're done with it. Many people see industry as dirty, but actually it's quite fascinating seeing where things come from and how they are made. Just take a look at the industry in Tacoma, Washington.

Shipping

Shipping is a form of industry because it utilizes huge cranes, trucks, and ships to transfer cargo like processed food or counterweights from one place to another. Tacoma, with its access to both ocean and inland transportation routes, is the seventh busiest container port in the nation. Covering over 2,400 acres and employing as many as 28,000 people, the Port of Tacoma provides opportunities for a variety of skilled trades people, such as crane operators, ship mechanics, and longshoremen.

Agriculture

Interested in seeing how an automatic banding machine can be used to ready crops for transport to market, or how the crops get in the ground in the first place? Then you might want to visit one of the many farm industry operations in and around Tacoma. Berries and rhubarb are two crops commonly grown in this area, along with flower bulbs. Timber milling has been an important part of the industrial landscape of Tacoma since its founding as well.

Manufacturing

If driving vacuum trucks up to farms to clean out their septic tanks does appeal to you, how about a career in one of Tacoma's factories? Years ago it didn't require much skill to work in a factory, when such enterprises were people powered. Today almost everything is automated, meaning you have to do special training to use the machines. Products that are produced in Tacoma factories include: meat, fish, processed food, candy, railroad car wheels, chemicals, furniture, flour, pulp, paper, wood, and clothing.

Construction

As a construction worker, you and the slurry mixer you operate will be helping to literally build Tacoma's future. Projects under development with local Tacoma construction firms include pedestrian bridges, museum renovations, new public buildings, light rail lines, a new bridge spanning Tacoma Narrows, upgrades to the University of Washington, and a variety of mixed-use commercial and residential developments that could see you erecting condo towers, breaking ground for a new factory, or landscaping a brand new subdivision.