The Economic Impact of Manufacturing
A strong economic development strategy that incorporates long-range thinking is acutely aware of the role those different sectors have upon the local economy – in terms of both workforce and employment, wages, supply chain, and local fiscal impact of local taxes and municipal revenues. Thurston County is a unique economic region in that the vast majority of manufactured products are for markets outside of the region. In other words, manufacturing products are exported, and fiscal resources are imported. Companies such as Crown Cork & Seal, Callisons, Georgia Pacific, Valley Nut & Bolt and H2O Jet all generate local wages and fiscal impacts while manufacturing products and goods for markets outside of the region. In short, they generate and super-charge the local supply chain and drive new dollars into the local economic environment.– Michael Cade, Executive Director, Thurston EDC
Manufacturing jobs are often desired because of their potential to export goods and services to other communities (and by consequence importing new dollars into our local market), but also due to their excellent economic multipliers. When a new manufacturing job is created, additional jobs are made in the supply-chains that provide those inputs, and new jobs are created from the new consumer demand for services such as housing, health care or restaurants. For every new job in the manufacturing sector, we generate 1.82 new jobs when we count the supply-chain and consumer demand impacts.
-Gene Angel, Director of Research & Evaluation, Thurston EDC