The 9th Edition of the Facts About Modern Manufacturing, a collaboration between the Manufacturing Institute, the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI) and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is now available.

The 2012 edition of Facts is a compilation of 65 slides and analysis presenting a wide array of data for the manufacturing sector, highlights its importance to the U.S. and global economy, and is the first comprehensive update from the groups since 2009.

The data assess the role of manufacturing in a number of key areas and notes a number of important trends, for example:

• Economic Growth: Every dollar in final sales of manufactured products supports $1.34 in output from other sectors, the largest multiplier of any sector;
  
  
• Innovation: While total U.S. industry domestic research and development was 3.8 percent of net sales during 2009 (most recent data available), the manufacturing ratio was 4.5 percent, well above the 2.8 percent for nonmanufacturing industries;

• Employment and Compensation: In December 2011, manufacturing employers paid $32.93 per hour in wages and benefits, while all employers in the economy paid approximately $30.44 per hour, an 8 percent premium for manufacturing employees;

• Environment: Manufacturing is a strong leader in the use of renewable energy. In 2011, the industrial sector used 2.3 quadrillion BTUs of renewable energy, compared with 1.9 quadrillion from the transportation, residential and commercial sectors combined; 

• Trade and Investment: The United States is the third largest exporter of manufactured goods, ranking behind only the European Union and China. Facts, however, points out an alarming trend—in 2000, U.S. manufacturing exports were more than three times larger than China’s, while in 2011, Chinese exports were 21 percent higher than those of the United States;

• Competitiveness: Structural costs—corporate tax liability, employee benefits, tort litigation, regulatory compliance, and energy—of U.S. manufacturers have risen relative to its nine largest trading partners. Taken together, these structural costs were 20 percent higher in 2011 than for the major competitors of the U.S., up from 17.6 percent in 2008.