Manufacturing matters, and if you aren’t willing to take my word for it, just check out the numbers – Economic impact models suggest that the creation of 100 new manufacturing jobs in New Hampshire will create as many as 138 additional jobs in the rest of the state economy, add $11 million in earnings, $18 million in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and generate $1.2 million in state and local tax revenue.

Further, while Smart Manufacturing/High Technology (SMHT) companies represent eight percent of the companies paying the state’s Business Profits and Business Enterprise taxes, those same companies accounted for 23 percent of the total business tax revenue in FY2008, the highest of any industrial sector.

 There’s no doubt that manufacturing is the number one industry in the state and the creator of well paying, sustainable jobs with an upward career trajectory. In order to shine a positive light on the sector, the New Hampshire Division of Economic Development, USDA Rural Development and WTPL 107.7 FM (102.3 FM and 94.3 FM as well – if you’re chained to your desk, you can also access the live stream at www.wtplfm.com) are partnering to present “Manufacturing Matters,” a new monthly radio segment that will debut today at 3:05 p.m.

“New Hampshire Today” show host Jack Heath will be joined by New Hampshire Division of Economic Development Interim Director Chris Way and a guest representing the best and brightest of the manufacturing sector. Today’s guest will be Dennis Delay, economist with the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies. In addition to being an economist at the Center, Dennis is also New Hampshire State Forecast Manager for the New England Economic Partnership, a non-profit association of economists that have monitored and forecast regional economic trends for more than three decades.

Dennis is the author of a report sponsored by the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire (BIA), in collaboration with the New Hampshire High Technology Council (NHHTC) and several BIA members that highlighted the importance of manufacturing to the state. Among the findings:

*The SMHT sector, which includes 3,700 companies in New Hampshire employing almost 80,000 people, paid out $6.4 billion in wages and benefits, making it the largest single sector of New Hampshire’s economy (19 percent). The next largest sector is government and government enterprises (15 percent), followed by healthcare and social assistance (14 percent).

*Paying an average wage of $1,200 per week, which is 40 percent higher than the average weekly wage for all private sector employees working in New Hampshire, SMHT companies account for 9 percent of New Hampshire’s private sector employers, but they employ more than 15 percent of New Hampshire’s private sector workers.

*SMHT has been one of the hardest hit sectors in the most recent recession. But while the sector is changing in character, wages and benefits continue to grow. Wages and benefits paid by SMHT companies in the state increased from $3.7 billion in 1990 to $6.4 billion in 2009, even as the number of manufacturing jobs in New Hampshire declined. Manufacturers in the state now produce more industrial output, but with fewer employees, than they did twenty years ago.

To learn more about the state’s number one industry, be sure to listen to “Manufacturing Matters” today at 3:05 p.m.!!!

– Steve Boucher, Communications & Legislative Director