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During the campaign, President Barack Obama pledged to create 1 million manufacturing jobs and expand exports. In NH, where the sector has been steadily sending jobs overseas, will manufacturing play a role in the state's fiscal recovery?
The answer is yes. Employers, policymakers and educators say advanced manufacturing is the foundation for growing NH's economy. In fact, many manufacturers have positions to fill, but say they can't find skilled employees. "The only way you create wealth is to grow it, mine it or manufacture it. All other industry, like health care, just moves money around," says Norm Fisk, director of The Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing in Keene.
The latest data shows that in 2011 there were 78,000 people earning an average of $1,323 per week in advanced manufacturing in NH, says Dennis Delay, economist for the NH Center for Public Policy Studies. While impressive, that reflects a decline from 2001 when manufacturing accounted for 27 percent of all NH wages; it now accounts for 20 percent, according to Delay.
Still, NH's manufacturers have added jobs since 2010, though not enough to make up for previous losses. The sector remains the state's third largest employer. Of the top 100 private companies in NH (ranked by annual revenue), 33 percent are manufacturers.
And those jobs pay well. Manufacturing pays 21 percent more than the average hourly private sector wage. New Hampshire Ball Bearings, which designs and produces ball bearings and assemblies, employs 1,500 employees at its Peterborough and Laconia plants and generates a gross monthly payroll "just north of $50 million," according to Gary Groleau, corporate manager of labor relations for the multi-billion dollar international company.
Manufacturers are also a vital link to the global marketplace. About 2,100 NH manufacturers and more than 1,600 high-tech manufacturers exported $4.3 billion worth of products in 2011, despite economic challenges abroad.
While NH's exports have begun declining since hitting an all-time high in 2010, they remain higher than they were five years ago, according to NH Department of Resources and Economic Development (DRED). Lorna Colquhoun, communications and legislative director for DRED, says that as global economies recover, economic development planners are confident those export numbers will increase again.
Manufacturing's Ripple Effect
Manufacturing, Delay says, is the most important...