In his state of the union address, President Obama outlined his manufacturing blueprint for America. In a follow-up press release today, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) said: "A True Manufacturing Renaissance Goes Beyond Words." NAM has released its own road map for restoring American manufacturing.
The Association of Washington Business (AWB) has been our state's manufacturing association for over 100 years and affiliates directly with NAM. AWB's Institute conducted a series of manufacturing focus groups around Washington and conducted manufacturing research in 2011. AWB recently released its findings.
AWB found that Washington manufacturing has an annual economic impact of $132.2 billion and exports $52.4 billion each year. The average annual compensation for workers in manufacturing is $77,460 based on 2009 data and it supports 285,300 other jobs.
In order to enhance manufacturing in our state, elected officals and legislators need to focus on:
- Competitive power rates to attract new manufacturers and retain existing companies.
- Changes to Initiative 937 in order for manufacturers to remain competitive with other states.
- Eliminating the lack of a skilled workforce to meet demand.
- Protecting tax incentives for the growth of the manufacturing industry
- Regulatory issues with several state and federal regulatory agencies that must be streamlined.
There are 7,158 manufacturers across Washington. Manufacturers range in size from Boeing with nearly 80,000 workers to Nelson Irrigation in Walla Walla with almost 200 workers. Manufacturing jobs are high skilled and pay family wages with benefits. They have been and are extremely important to our state's future.
As NAM says, actions, not glowing words, are needed at the state and national level is we are going to bring back manufacturing in America.
Don C. Brunell, President (DonB@awb.org)
