Manufacturing means Good Jobs, High Skills, High Wages, Training and  Major Economic Contributions

In Vermont …

• Manufacturers account for about 2,000 firms in Vermont. Most are small, with about 60% having less than 10 employees. About 87% have 50 or less employees. Fewer than 15 have 500 employees or more.
• Employ about 31,100 (Feb ’12) Vermonters, or about 10% of Vermont’s total workforce of about 303,000 (Dec 2011). The total Vermont population is about 625,750 (2010 Census).
• Average annual earnings in 2011 in Vermont manufacturing was 36% above statewide average earnings (i.e. $51,829 in manufacturing vs. $38,124 on average).
• Manufacturing contributes about 11.1% ($2.9 Billion in Year 2009) of Vermont's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By comparison, Government was 14.3%, Health care was 10.4%, Retail was 7.9%, Finance/Insurance was 6.7%, Hotel and Restaurant 4.5%, Construction 3.7%, Private Education 2.4%, and Agriculture/Forest/Fishing 1.1%.
• In 1997 (one year after VMEC first opened its doors for business) there were 44,000 Vermonters working in manufacturing. By 2010, there were about 31,000 – a 25%+ decline. Yet, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that in 1997 Vermont’s manufacturing sector produced $1.69 billion worth of output; and in 2009 that figure was $2.9 billion worth of output (both in inflation-adjusted dollars). That’s a 70% increase in output in a little over a decade! Each worker produced nearly 2.5 times more in 2009 compared to 1997.

In the United States and the World …

• The United States is the world's largest manufacturing economy, producing 21 percent of global manufactured products. China is second at 15 percent and Japan is third at 12 percent.
• U.S. manufacturing produces $1.7 trillion of value each year, or 11.7 percent of U.S. GDP. For every $1.00 spent in manufacturing, another $1.35 is added to the economy.
• Manufacturing supports an estimated 17 million jobs in the U.S.—about one in six private sector jobs.  Nearly 12 million Americans (or 9 percent of the workforce) are employed directly in manufacturing.
• In 2010, the average U.S. manufacturing worker earned $77,186 annually, including pay and benefits. The average non-manufacturing worker earned $56,436 annually.
• U.S. manufacturers are the most productive workers in the world—far surpassing the worker productivity of any other major manufacturing economy, leading to higher wages and living standards.
• U.S. manufacturers perform two-thirds of all R&D in the nation, driving more innovation than any other sector.
• Manufacturing draws a diverse workforce and over half of manufacturing workers in 2009 had some education beyond high school.
• An estimated 19% of all US manufacturing firms are owned by women, and another 21% are owned jointly by men and women
• Taken alone, U.S. Manufacturing would be the 9th largest economy in the world.