The thing about relocations is that they take a lot of work. Packing boxes, loading them up, and hiring septic tank pump trucks to come clean out your septic tank makes you a very industrious person, and being an industrious person will serve you well if you need to find a job when you get to Springfield. Industry, here defined as manufacturing, production, and other types of manual labor, is well-established in Springfield, so you would do well to consider it. Here's a bit of an overview of Springfield's industry to get you started.

Like most cities in the United States (or in the world, really) Springfield started off with an economy that was primarily based upon agriculture. The arrival of the railroads in 1870, when the city was recovering from the Civil War, changed that. Suddenly young soldiers just released from service had more options that simply returning to the farm. They could feed coal into the central heating boiler that drove the steam engine, unload cargo, or labor in a factory that produced items to be exported and sold. Industry had arrived.

The railroad spawned growth in the city that would lead to the state it's in today. This is not to say, however, that industry is the sole source of support for Springfield. In fact, the economy is based on a range of activities, relying as much on home health services and hotels as it does on factories and shipping. Totaled together, Springfield's job sectors (of which manufacturing is the sixth largest) generates over 14.7 billion dollars for the economy.

Though none of the top employers in the city are manufacturing or industrial firms, the manufacturing sector of the economy provides jobs to approximately 18,000 people, or 9% of the workforce. Most of them are men, not because Springfield's employers are discriminatory, but because statistically women prefer jobs that assist others, like health care or education, to manual labor jobs like operating a pneumatic conveyor. Other male-dominated industry-related job sectors in Springfield include construction (9% of the workforce) and trucking (4% of the workforce).

Some things that are manufactured in Springfield you will find at your local greenhouse supplier, while others you might find at a grocery store. Dairy products, cheese, baked goods, plastics, rubber, mineral products, fabricated metal, building materials, shipping containers, machinery, computer products, electrical equipment, and transportation equipment are some of the things produced in Springfield factories. These factories belong to major multinational companies like Kraft Foods, Positronic Industries (which makes electrical connectors), Northrop Grumman (a defense contractor), SRC Holdings (a re-manufacturer of used equipment), the Paul Muller Company (a producer of stainless steel tanks), and 3M (inventor of the post-it note).