High Skills, High Wages, and Training

• Account for about 2,000 firms in Vermont. Most are small and about 60% have less than 10 employees. Fewer than 15 have 500 employees or more.
• Employ about 30,200 (Sept '09) Vermonters, or about 10% of Vermont's total payroll employment of about 293,800 (Sept '09)
• Manufacturing pays the highest of all Vermont employment sectors. In Q3 2007, according to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics quarterly wage census, the average private sector wage in Vermont was $35,568. Vermont Manufacturing jobs paid the highest average wage at $48,308. This compared to $38,532 in Construction and $36,244 in Health Services and Education.
• In the US, manufacturers employ about 14 million Americans and over 10 million are employed by about 350,000 small manufacturers (< 500 employees). Another 6 million are employed in related industries such as wholesaling and finance.
• More than one in six US private sector jobs depends on the US manufacturing base
• US manufacturers export some $60 billion in products each month (2008)
• US manufacturing jobs are high-skilled and high-wage. Total compensation in the manufacturing sector averages more than $32.00/hour - approximately 22% higher than in service industries (2009). Forty percent of the difference is due to higher wages and salaries, with 20% due to higher average health benefits. Moreover, these statistics do not capture the fact that manufacturing jobs are more likely to offer training.
• Manufacturing also draws a diverse workforce, and over 1/2 of current manufacturing workers (2009) have some eductaion beyond high school.

Jobs & Economic Contributions

• Manufacturing generates wealth. In 2008, the US manufacturing sector in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was about 11.5% of total GDP and close to $1.64 trillion. If US manufacturing was a country by itself, it would be the 8th largest economy in the world!
• Manufacturing made the highest contribution (15%) of all sectors to real GDP growth between 2001 and 2006.
• Manufacturing remains the engine of American technology development and innovation - responsible for more than 70% of private sector R & D - while > 45% of all US R&D companies are manufacturers.
• Manufacturing's high productivity rate - which determines real wage and benefit compensation - increased by more than 50% over the past decade and was far higher than for services. Between 1987 and 2008, manufacturing productivity increased at a 3.4% annual rate, as compared to only 2.2% for nonfarm business as a whole. At that rate, workers can produce twice as much in manufactured goods per hour roughly every 20 years, while it takes 35 years for output-per-hour to double in the overall economy.
• Manufacturing goods make up more than 60% of US exports. While agriculture exports amount to about $50 billion per year, manufacturers export that much each month.
• Manufacturing has a greater secondary economic impact (i.e. multiplier effect) on the rest of the economy than does any other sector. Each manufacturing dollar generates an additional $1.40 in economic activity in other sectors of the US economy. Only information services, agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and construction come close at slightly over $1.00 each. Retail trade ($0.58) and wholesale trade ($0.55) sectors have the lowest impact per dollar of economic activity.  (Source: The Facts About Modern Manufacturing, 8th Edition, The Manufacturing Institute, 2009.)
• The United States is the world's number one manufacturer, accounting for about 25% of global manufacturing output in 2004
• As of 2008, the largest US manufacturing industries are: food, chemicals, computers and electronic products, and fabricated metal products, and they account for about 44%% of manufacturing GDP
• Between 2001 and 2005, manufacturing accounted for 15% of US economic growth - real GDP adjusted for inflation. This is more than any other single sector.
• In 2004, US manufacturing employees earned an average of nearly $65,000 a year in wages and benefits, while employees in the rest of the economy earned about $53,000. That's a 25% premium for working in manufacturing.
• An estimated 19% of all US manufacturing firms are owned by women, and another 21% are owned jointly by men and women
• In VERMONT, manufacturing contributes about 11.6% ($2.935 Billion in Year 2008) of Vermont's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By comparison, Government was 13.9%, Health care was 10.0%, Retail was 8.1%, Finance/Insurance was 6.7%, Hotel and Restaurant 4.6%, and Agriculture/Forest/Fishing 1.5%.

Partial Sources: 1) Facts About Modern Manufacturing - www.nam.org/facts) ; 2) For Vermont: The Vermont Economy Newsletter - www.vteconomy.com ; and The Facts about Modern Manufacturing by The Manufacturing Institute (8th Edition, 2009); and A Framework for Revitalizing American Manufacturing, December 2009.

Who is VMEC?

• "Birthed" in 1995 by the Vermont Technology Council, VMEC is an unbiased, not-for-profit Center that provides confidential, one-on-one assistance and training to Vermont's manufacturers
• VMEC is a public-private partnership whose key stakeholders include: the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), the Vermont State Colleges, the State of Vermont, and the Vermont Technology Council
• The primary Mission of VMEC is, “To improve manufacturing in Vermont and strengthen the global competitiveness of the state's manufacturers”
• VMEC provides hands-on assistance and training on a fee-for-service basis to help Vermont manufacturers increase their productivity, introduce new technologies, reduce costs, improve their competitiveness, and grow.
• VMEC implements complete strategic, manufacturing, and growth solutions, and also provides selected public and onsite training workshops
• VMEC is impact-driven and has a long, proven track record of measured results in Vermont
• VMEC headquarters is located on the Randolph Center, Vermont campus of its "host," Vermont Technical College (VT TECH)
• The VMEC staff has a proven track record with positive, measured impact/results. VMEC has assisted over 820 Vermont manufacturers since opening its doors for business.
• In January 2006, VMEC formed a specialized business unit called the Process Strategies Group (PSG). PSG is leveraging VMEC experience and expertise for the broader public good by focusing on providing implementation assistance and training in Lean process improvements primarily within, but not limited to, Vermont's healthcare, government, higher education, and finance sectors.
• In early 2009, with encouragement from the Vermont Technology Council, VMEC worked with the US Department of Commerce NIST Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and Planet Eureka! International Innovation Network to successfully launch the Vermont Innovation Marketplace ( http://VermontInnovation.org) as a subset of the new USA Innovation Marketplace.