Although North Carolina’s Manufacturing sector employs many fewer people than it once did and today comprises only 11 percent of Total Nonfarm employment, it punches above its weight in terms of economic output, a recently released Census Bureau report indicates.
The LEAD Feed has covered the importance of manufacturing to North Carolina's economy and data from the 2012 Economic Census sheds further light on this by providing additional industrial and geographic detail.
Most North Carolina manufacturing takes place within Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia MSA had more manufacturing businesses and workers than any other in the state in 2012. Together, their shipments were valued at more than $36 billion. To produce that much required purchasing approximately $22 billion in materials and capital spending with the remainder — employee compensation, profit, and other value-added components (approximately $14 billion) — contributing to economic output as measured by Gross State Product (GSP).
The Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia MSA is home to a third of the state’s chemical factories, and there they produce everything from adhesives to paint to soap. Despite fewer firms, the Raleigh MSA's Chemical manufacturing contribution to the state’s GSP was four times larger than Charlotte’s — perhaps indicative of the high value-added pharmaceutical manufacturing concentrated in the area.
Statewide, most manufacturers were impacted by the Great Recession, but some industries and areas were hit harder than others. The value of Furniture manufacturing shipments fell by more than 25 percent in the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton MSA from 2007–2012. However, Textile and Transportation Equipment manufacturing in the Asheville MSA saw shipments grow during that period.
Manufacturing plays a larger relative role in some MSAs than in others. Nearly $50,000 in manufacturing shipments were produced for every resident in the Greensboro- High Point MSA — considerably more than any other North Carolina MSA. While the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia MSA produces more than any other MSA, its per capita manufacturing shipments were $16,000 due to its much larger population.
Footnotes:
1Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). MSAs are geographical entities that consist of one or more counties and include the counties containing the core urban area, as well as any adjacent counties that have a high degree of social and economic integration (as measured by commuting to work) with an urban core area of 50,000 or more population.
2The Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC MSA comprises: Cabarrus, Gaston, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Rowan, Union and York counties.
3http://www.census.gov/manufacturing/asm/definitions/
4Gross State Product is a measurement of a state's output; it is the sum of value added from all industries in the state. GSP is the state counterpart to the Nation's gross domestic product (GDP).
5The Raleigh MSA comprises: Franklin, Johnston, and Wake Counties
6The Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton MSA comprises: Alexander, Burke, Caldwell and Catawba counties
7The Asheville MSA comprises: Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties.
8The Greensboro-High Point MSA comprises: Guilford, Randolph, and Rockingham counties.
General Disclaimers:
The Census Bureau produces the Economic Census, its official five-year measure of American business and the economy, every five years. Its employment and establishment data are not directly comparable to Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) or Current Employment Statistics (CES) estimates due to differences in methodology. Any mistakes in data management, analysis, or presentation are the author’s.