As a member of the Utah Manufacturers Association, you recently received the first edition of CompanyWeek/UT. We are pleased to be a partner in this first-ever, sustained media effort to shine a light on the people and companies shaping Utah’s important and growing manufacturing sector.
CompanyWeek has been publishing in neighboring Colorado for a year. Over the past few months, CompanyWeek has been profiling Utah businesses as well, showcasing local companies to a Colorado audience that like Utah also stands to gain from a meaningful manufacturing comeback.
We’re partnering with CompanyWeek for several important reasons. One of the most important is that manufacturing has never been more strategic to Utah’s economy. It’s around 12% of national gross domestic product, and just over 13% here in Utah. Total output from manufacturing is in excess of $14 billion. In addition, the industry employs approximately 130,000 workers and creates an additional 300,000 related jobs in the state. The industry boasts an average monthly wage of $3,962, which is 28% higher than the average state wage.
Our business community understands fully what was lost the past several decades as we off-shored much of the nation’s manufacturing base. Middle-class wages have stalled. Companies have grown weary of managing global supply chains as quality and intellectual property have been compromised. And our newfound preference for locally grown and produced consumer goods isn’t possible without a surge in American-made products.
On the plus side, Utah and the region are poised to lead a national manufacturing rebound – in sectors like energy and aerospace, lifestyle manufacturing and advanced, high-tech sectors like medical and bioscience. We’re poised to recapture an important and vital piece of our economic fabric – if we act now.
As I talked more with the publication’s founder, Bart Taylor, it became clear to me that we share a vision for why a manufacturing revival is important to both our local and national economies and how storytelling can be a powerful tool in addressing barriers to growth.
Barriers like workforce. Today a ‘skills gap’ in manufacturing is hampering growth. Manufacturing is a sector in need of a next generation workforce, one more in tune with the disruptive technology reshaping manufacturing environments. By reporting on our best manufacturing businesses, Utah Manufacturers Association and CompanyWeek/UT can help rebrand a sector that has a fresh story to tell.
Finally, I’m confident this effort will provide the important service of connecting a revitalized industry with each other. Manufacturers need to find and meet new supply and workforce partners that will enable them to re-shore to the region or develop new companies without looking elsewhere for help. It’s a network that will develop not only among Utah businesses but across a Rocky Mountain region that shares opportunities and challenges. As the region leverages its considerable economic development assets to grow — and the West will be home to millions of new residents in the coming years — Utah business will benefit by better knowing not only our Wasatch Front partners as well as those along Colorado’s Front Range, in Arizona and throughout the Intermountain West.
CompanyWeek/UT will actually begin biweekly here in Utah, distributed to members of the Utah Manufacturers Association as well as a growing list of companies that also share a commitment to a strong and growing manufacturing sector. We look forward to showcasing this amazing and important sector of Utah’s economy with every issue. And with growth beckoning, hang on for the ride!
—Todd R. Bingham, UMA president