New Research on Manufacturing Gains Notice

After decades of decline, the U.S. manufacturing sector is demonstrating its resilience: between 2010 and 2017, the manufacturing sector’s contribution to U.S. GDP grew by 34 percent and U.S. manufacturers added nearly 1 million net new jobs. With this resurgence of manufacturing, state and local leaders are looking beyond traditional incentive-laden business attraction strategies – and are revisiting critical questions about what works in manufacturing policy.

Last year, Economic Development Quarterly, a scholarly journal with an emphasis on local economic development, partnered with the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to put together a special issue on manufacturing. CREC’s CEO, Ken Poole, guest edited the special issue, and the first of two volumes was released earlier this month. You can find the introduction here.

Over the next few months, we’ll be featuring articles from the December issue here on our blog. These articles examine:

• the link between company innovations and profits;
• MEP models for delivering consulting services to smaller manufacturing firms;
• strategies for retaining globally mobile companies;
• the role of design in manufacturing innovations; and
• the skills and credentials of the manufacturing workforce.

Check in over the next few months as we eagerly anticipate the release of the second volume – so you can find what is interesting to you. Access to the journal articles is through subscription or  individual purchase.