Boom or bust?

Are jobs in this industry on the rise? Are there any sub-sectors that are growing?

Where are the jobs? Which places have the most manufacturing engineer opportunities?

Manufacturing is holding steady, but not really growing. Most strictly manufacturing companies are looking for young engineers right out of school so they don't have to pay them too much.
My experience here was with a 2nd tier manufacturer for aerospace connectors. Most of the machinists were experienced, decent people who were just glad to have jobs. They usually worked 50-60 hrs per week. They had 1 programmer, 1 fixture engineer, and 1 fixture machinist.
Management was not all that great. They were nice, but they were horrible at forecasting work. They were overly optimistic and some of the machinists that were let go (like me) had to pay the price. Too many people in the front office, too...some of the women didn't have a lot to do and kind of liked to create drama....