This article originally ran on St. Louis Post Distpatch on December 1, 2023.
On Tuesday morning, a former Boeing CEO took the stage before a crowd of Missouri’s political and business leaders and offered a bold prediction: After decades of losses in manufacturing, the sector is poised for a turnaround in St. Louis.
Dennis Muilenburg, the former Boeing CEO who chairs the project’s board, acknowledged the steep losses the region has suffered. In the 1970s and 1980s, many of St. Louis’ manufacturing jobs disappeared, he said, and offshoring and outsourcing have dealt continued hits since then.
But that’s all changing, he said. “We are rebuilding, and rebuilding, and rebuilding manufacturing capability here in St. Louis,” Muilenburg told the crowd.
