Vermont Business Magazine Vermont receives a C for manufacturing and D- for logistics, says annual report from Ball State University. The 2019 Manufacturing Scorecard from Ball State’s Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) analyzes how each state ranks among its peers in several areas of the economy that underlie the success of manufacturing and logistics.
These specific measures include: manufacturing and logistics industry health, human capital, cost of worker benefits, diversification of the industries, state-level productivity and innovation, expected fiscal liability, tax climate, and global reach.
Vermont improved from "C" to "B" in its global position due to relatively higher manufacturing export growth. The state kept its grade of "B" in its human capital, "C" in its manufacturing industry, productivity and innovation, and diversification categories; "C-" in its liability gap; "D" in its tax climate; "D-" in its logistics industry; and "F" in its benefits costs.
The production of goods holds particular interest in the US economy. Manufacturing firms are not necessarily reliant on local demand for goods and are therefore footloose. Their location depends more on local factors such as the quality and availability of the labor force, transportation infrastructure, non-wage labor costs, access to innovative technologies, and the cost of doing business.
Manufacturing is the production of both consumer durable goods (e.g. automobiles, electronics, and home appliances that last for years) and consumer non-durable goods (e.g. clothing, processed foods, and other goods that are consumed after use).
To measure manufacturing industry health, researchers included three variables: the share of total income earned by manufacturing employees in each state, the wage premium paid to manufacturing workers relative to the other states’ employees, and the share of manufacturing employment per capita.
Go to the Manufacturing Scorecard project website to view the performance history for each state and an archive of past reports with insight into the manufacturing industry: mfgscorecard.cberdata.org
Source: Ball State. Muncie, IN 8.1.2019