Boral Bricks plant manager Sean Kirk watches plant employees load bricks, four to eight at a time, onto monorail cars, sometimes loading 1,900 bricks a day.

“That’s got to be the hardest job I’ve ever done,” he recalls. “That’s all they do all day. They work hard, but they make a lot of money.”

The 36 workers at Boral’s Muskogee plant live and shop in Muskogee, Oktaha, Checotah and surrounding communities, Kirk said. The plant relies on local contractors and businesses for mining, contract hauling, keeping company vehicles in good condition. The plant supplies bricks to contractors from Muskogee to Dallas.

In so doing, the plant serves double duty in driving Muskogee’s economy now and in the future. It is part of Muskogee’s manufacturing sector, which employs more than 4,800 workers, just behind government and health care. Plus, the company supports the construction industry, a sector which could grow by 12 percent within 10 years, according to the Eastern Workforce Investment Board.

Leisha Haworth, executive director of Muskogee Development Corp., said she anticipates the top three sectors driving Muskogee’s economy in the future will be the same three driving it today: Government services, health care and manufacturing.

In a report about the area’s highest ranked industries, the Eastern Workforce Investment Board projects job growth in 13 areas by 2018. Top growing areas in a seven-county region include:

• Health Care and social assistance: 13,078 to 16,455 jobs, a 26 percent increase.

• Government: 27,503 to 30,509 jobs, a 11 percent increase.

• Retail trade: 13,457 to 15,055 jobs, a 12 percent increase.

The report projects a 4 percent decline in the number of manufacturing jobs by 2018, but that doesn’t mean manufacturing will cease being a driving force in the economy, said EWIB Director Nannette Robertson.

“A lot of it will be because of automation,” she said. “And, until the economy turns around, there is going to be a decline. But I don’t expect manufacturing to just go away.”

Haworth expects manufacturing to continue to be strong and to diversify.

She said alternative energy — including wind power — aeronautics, metal fabrication and transportation sensitive industries could pick up in areas where traditional manufacturing falters.

“Some of our industries are recession resistant,” Haworth said, citing toilet tissue as an example. Muskogee’s Georgia-Pacific plant makes Angel Soft toilet paper.

Manufacturing also isn’t limited to large employers such as Georgia-Pacific or Dal-Tile, Haworth said.

“We have 85 manufacturers in Muskogee, hiring from two people to 1,350 people,” she said. “A lot of these are metal fabricators, and one of the reasons we are targeting them is that we would like to target the wind component industries.”

Wind energy is a growing utility in Oklahoma, she said.

Although the hills, humidity and trees of eastern Oklahoma are not as conducive to wind power as high plains of northwest Oklahoma, Muskogee area companies can supply materials to make the massive wind turbines, Haworth said.

“Metals are a component of making the wind turbines, and the local manufacturing base in Muskogee makes it a good base for the windmill manufacturers to locate in Muskogee,” she said. “We have a great location with our rail and barge traffic. Our workforce is trained, and through Indian Capital Technology Center, they can get further training.”

Another factor in manufacturing’s projected dip in employment could be that manufacturing is not recruiting as heavily as other industries, such as health care, Haworth said.

“Who is recruiting young people to go into manufacturing? There are not as many young people choosing manufacturing as a career choice,” she said.

Kirk said Muskogee’s location — both geographically and geologically — makes the local plant an important part of the Boral family.

The plant mines its own material from the rich clay and slate soil in the area.

“It keeps us successful in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, northwest Arkansas and north Texas,” he said.

Another reason for Muskogee plant’s success is the strength of the Boral company and the market area, Kirk said.

“We just built a new plant five years ago in Union City,” he said, referring to a town near Oklahoma City. “We built another one and a half years ago in Terre Haute, Ind. He said that while several Muskogee workers went to the Union City plant, those plants have not had an impact on Muskogee’s plant.

Kirk said the plant has been affected by the downturn in the economy, but business has picked up in the past three months.

Construction, a complement to manufacturing, could be a stronger force in Muskogee’s economy in 10 years, the EWIB Report said. The report projects a 12 percent increase in jobs, 7,868 to 8,847 jobs, in 2018.

Barry Boswell of Boswell Construction said he sees his business growing over the next 10 years.

“Our phone is ringing,” he said. “We’re gaining business by virtue of our Web site, marketing. We’ll be doing marketing in the effort to let people know we’re out there.”

Area projects Boswell has worked on include the Cherokee Nation health clinic in Muskogee and the Sequoyah High School gym.

“We’ve had a couple hundred thousand dollars in growth sales every year,” he said about his construction business. “And our business is wholly family owned. Me and my sons. We have four of us working on it every day.”

Boswell said the secret to his company’s growth has been to “expand beyond the loop of Muskogee.”

“We have a big project in Waco, Texas, one in Ponca City, Bartlesville in a couple of weeks.

Boswell said he expects his business to grow even during the current economic hardship.

“I’ve always taken a little higher path,” he said. “It’s harder, but in time we produce a more viable company.”

Boswell said he also is expanding into “green technology,” constructing buildings geared to saving energy.

“We have better educated customers. Usually, they’re more demanding,” he said. “A number of our clients want not only more value for their money but ways to cut the rising costs of utilities.”

Boswell said he expects Muskogee’s economy to weather the recession and grow.

“I know Muskogee and the mid-continent is on the tail-whip of the recession,” he said. ”It takes a little while for things to hit here. What went bad for them (on the coast) two years ago will hit us hard.”

But he remains positive about the future.

“It’s an exciting time, even though it’s tough,” he said. “A lot of businesses start during tough times. The Empire State Building was built from scratch in 400 days during the Depression.”