Here at Flex Technologies, we love everything there is about manufacturing. Manufacturing the perfect product is like solving a puzzle, and we love the mystery. If you are looking for silicone products online, our manufacturing processes have been honed over decades of work in the industry. But we also know that we are standing on the backs of giants when it comes to manufacturing innovation. For your enjoyment, here are some interesting facts about manufacturing around the world.

Major Contributors

The United States is not the manufacturing giant that it once was, outsourcing most manufacturing jobs to China and other places with lax labor laws. But that doesn't mean the current manufacturers in the US aren't pulling their weight. In fact, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, manufacturers added $2.18 trillion to the economy in 2016. That same year, manufacturing made up 11.7 percent of our economy's GDP.

Serious ROI

According to NAM calculations utilizing IMPLAN, manufacturing enjoys the highest multiplier effect of any of the economic sectors. For every single dollar spent on manufacturing, a dollar and 89 cents gets added to the world economy. And that barely scratches the surface. According to the same source, for every person that works in manufacturing, four other supporting job positions are opened. And these may be conservative estimates. The Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation reports that a multiplier effect of three dollar sand 60 cents for every dollar spent in manufacturing.

Small Business

While Ford and General Motors are still around, the majority of the manufacturing firms that do business in the United States are small businesses. Only 3,813 manufacturing firms in 2015 out of 251,774 had more than 500 employees. If 500 employees still sounds like a big business to you, consider that three fourths of that total were firms with under 20 employees. All of this comes from the U.S. Census Bureau's Statistics of U.S. Business.

Just Passing Through

According to the IRS, about two thirds of all manufacturers in the United States are set up as pass-through entities, also known as C corporations. When you include sole proprietorships, that number spikes to about 83.4 percent.

A Slice of the Pie

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 12.5 million people in the United States work as manufacturers. This accounts for 8.5 percent of the work force. That 12.5 million can be broken up into people who manufacture durable goods (7.8 million) and people who manufacture non durable goods (4.7 million).

Getting Paid

Also from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average worker in the manufacturing industry made $82,023 annually, when you include both pay and benefits. Looking just at wages, that number comes out to about $26.50 per hour. Not bad for a days work, although it is generally a bigger days work than the average employee.

Health Worker, Healthy Workplace

The manufacturing sector has a higher percentage of workers covered by health insurance than almost any other sector in the work force. That is quite the accomplishment and honor! According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 92 percent of all manufacturing workers were eligible for some kind of health insurance benefits in 2015. For the general workforce, this number rests at an abysmal 79 percent (that is a lot of people whose life would be ruined by exorbitant medical bills!). However, only about 84 percent of people who are eligible take advantage of their employee health plans. Only government and the trade, communications, and utilities industries beat out manufacturing for percentage of employees covered by health insurance.

Dwindling Pool

According to Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, about three and a half million more manufacturing jobs will be needed over the next decade. Unfortunately, about two million of those jobs will not be able to be filled due to an increasing skill gap. From the same source, about 80 percent of US manufacturers report serious shortages in the number of skilled applicants.

Global Scale

According to the World Trade Organization, the manufactured goods produced for world trade has doubled between 2000 and 2014. United States consumption of these goods, including domestic shipments and imports, took up a full 34 percent of this global trade.

Energy Hogs

Manufacturers use up a big portions of our nations energy, and for good reason! It takes a lot to manufacture on a mass scale. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. manufacturers take up over 30 percent of the nation's energy consumption.That comes out to about 31.5 quadrillion Btu of energy, and that is just for the year 2014 alone!

R&D Drivers

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, nobody drive research and development in the private sector as much as manufacturers. In the United States, a full three quarters of all R&D in the private sector comes from the manufacturing industry, with 229.9 billion dollars spent just in the year 2014. Other less significant contributors to R&D include aerospace, chemical, electronic, motor vehicle, and computer industries.

U.S. Affiliates

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, over two million of the manufacturing workers in the U.S. are employed by a United States affiliate from foreign multi-national corporations. That is a full one sixth of the entire manufacturing sector. In order of prevalence, areas of the manufacturing sector that are U.S. affiliates include motor vehicles (322,600), chemicals (319,700), machinery (222,200), and food (216,200), among many others.

Getting in on the action

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, for the first time ever foreign direct investment for the manufacturing sector exceeded $1.5 trillion in 2016. That is a huge increase even from 20016, when only 569.3 billion dollars were invested by foreign entities. By all estimates, that number is only set to grow.

Hopefully these manufacturing facts proved interesting! We are always eager to learn more about manufacturing here! It is what drives us to constantly perfect our own silicone product manufacturing. If you are looking for silicone products online, then Flex Technologies has the silicone hoses and tubes you need. For more information about our products, please do not hesitate to give us a call today. One of our friendly and knowledgeable representatives will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.