Based on their sales growth in 2012, several industries thatwere hit hard during the Great Recession are making a comeback.

That's according to Sageworks, a Raleigh, N.C.-based financial information company,which recently conducted a financial statement analysis of privatecompanies to identify the fastest growing industries during2012.

Machinery equipment wholesalers, machine shops, architecturaland structural metals manufacturing and industrial machinerymanufacturing are among the top 10 fastest growers, according toSageworks.

“It's possible that those are tied together, as businesses havestarted to use some of their cash to invest in needed equipment andupgrades,” said Brad Schaefer, Sageworks analyst. “All of those took really bighits in 2009 because companies weren't investing in a lot ofequipment.”

Of the other industries in the top 10 strongest growingindustries over the last 12 months, several were related topetroleum and other forms of energy, Sageworks discovered. Schaefernoted that the oil boom in the Northwest Plains, increased shallowwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and other operations areproviding new opportunities for these companies to expand theirdrilling operations.

Support activities for mining which includes drilling and makinggeological observations at prospective mineral, oil and gas sites,grew almost 32% over the last 12 months. Sageworks said the highprice of oil during 2012 contributed to 27% revenue growth amongpetroleum and petroleum product wholesalers and 18% growth amonggasoline stations.

Schaefer noted that the increasing dependence U.S. companieshave on computers could have contributed to the nearly 18% growthseen by computer systems design and related services during thelast 12 months. It might also be a reason why this industry hasperformed well for the last several years, he added.

“It's been steady since 2010,” Schaefer said of revenue growthfor this industry. “Even in 2009, when almost all industries hadsales declines, computer systems design grew about 4%, which usually signifiesa stable industry.”

Employment services, which grew sales by almost 18% over thelast 12 months, are another industry that could have benefited fromsome of the same revenue drivers, Schaefer said.

“I see the employment services industry doing fairly well again,just because a lot of people are still uncertain about the economyand the political atmosphere, which contributes to businesseshiring temporary or contract workers instead of full-timeemployees,” he said. “I don't think that's something that'll goaway for the next year.”

According to Sageworks, the fastest growing industries (privatecompanies only):

Sageworks said it possesses a proprietary database of privatelyheld company financial statements aggregated by industry. Each day,approximately 1,000 of these financial statements are collected bythe company from accounting firms, banks, and credit unions througha cooperative data model with Sageworks clients.