California’s manufacturing companies have already entered recovery mode, according to a quarterly survey from Chapman University released Thursday.

Job declines in the manufacturing category are continuing, however, and employment gains in paper and computer products aren’t high enough to compensate for losses in other areas.

The fourth quarter survey of purchasing managers from the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research at Chapman shows the manufacturing sector expanding for the second consecutive quarter, led by a surge in new orders of high tech and non-durable goods items.

The composite index generated by the survey yielded a value of 54.5 for the fourth quarter, compared with 53.8 in the third quarter and 45.1 in the fourth quarter of 2008. An index value over 50 shows expansion.

The survey showed new orders shot up to the highest levels in at least two years, leading to a similar surge in production. The survey cites the need to replace depleted inventories as a key factor behind the growth in new orders, particularly of technology products.

The only note of gloom in the survey was a slight drop in the employment index component from 45.8 in the third quarter to 45.1 in the fourth quarter, indicating continued declines in manufacturing employment. The survey notes that while some manufacturing sectors such as paper and computer products are seeing employment gains, those are more than offset by job declines in chemicals, plastics, wood products, fabricated metals and aerospace products.