Aug. 24--Building 45 at the Elliott Co. plant in Jeannette has the sky-high, wide-body look of an airplane hangar -- a good thing given that it contains what has to qualify as some of the world's largest classroom props.

Elliott has converted a vacant 66,000-square-foot warehouse into a training center where new hires learn how to design, manufacture and repair industrial turbines and compressors that can be the size of three or four SUVs.

At a time when the overall manufacturing sector has sustained some of the region's heaviest job losses, Elliott is bucking the trend.

Since January it has filled nearly 100 new jobs here, company officials said, expanding its regional work force to about 850.

"It's not that often we get news of that many jobs being added in manufacturing," said state Department of Labor and Industry analyst Lauren Nimal. "It's rare to see such large increases in any manufacturing industry statewide, definitely, and that's not limited to Pittsburgh."

Thanks largely to the oil industry boom, Elliott faces one of those nice problems that's a problem nonetheless: a shortage of qualified workers.

Its solution? Elliott set up its own training program in partnership with Westmoreland County Community College, the kind of initiative that economic development groups such as the Allegheny Conference have long pushed.

"One of our problems has been an aging, old work force, so there's been a big campaign to attract new talent -- not only machinists but engineering folks," said Mike Lordi, Elliott vice president of industrial products.

"The best way to train them is to take it over ourselves," he added.

With annual sales exceeding $800 million and a $50 million-plus payroll, Elliott provides the Jeannette economy with "a pretty big trickle down," he said, not to mention well-paying jobs.

"People talk about the only jobs being at Wal-Mart, but we have jobs that average $21 an hour," Mr. Lordi said.

Elliott's upbeat forecast belies the grim manufacturing portrait presented by regional data that compares the number of jobs in 2008 to the corresponding month in 2007.

For nearly a year, those comparisons have consistently shown 1,000 or so fewer manufacturing jobs in the 10-county Pittsburgh region. But things of late have gotten even worse, said regional economist Harold D. Miller.

There were 1,300 fewer manufacturing jobs this May compared with May 2007, 1,700 fewer in June and 1,900 fewer year-to-year in July.