Achieving a robust business and industry community is a long-known key to growing and maintaining an overall vibrant economy. In no business or industrial sector is that more true than Florida’s manufacturing sector.
Florida has about 310,000 manufacturing jobs; and the sector creates an impressive three indirect jobs for each -- the highest indirect job creator of any employment sector. Average wages are over $63,000, versus a general workforce average of $41,000. Manufacturers perform half of all research and development in the U.S., driving more innovation than any other sector. Yet, Florida is last among the southeastern states in terms of “Manufacturing Gross State Product Output”:
| Florida |
5.0% |
$36.7 |
| Alabama |
15.9% |
$27 |
| Georgia |
10.4% |
$41.1 |
| Mississippi |
17.2% |
$16.3 |
| North Carolina |
18.3% |
$72.9 |
| South Carolina |
15.3% |
$24.2 |
Those economic dynamics and opportunities are convincing, leading Governor Rick Scott and key legislators to begin a focus on the sector as a key means to the state's economic recovery. The 2012 Florida Legislature currently is poised to consider legislation that will encourage growth in manufacturing output and jobs, capital investment and tax incentives - so the work anticipated by the AIF Manufacturers Council is timely.
| Computer and electronic products |
$6.957 |
| Food products |
$4.894 |
| Miscellaneous manufacturing |
$4.114 |
| Aerospace and other misc. transportation |
$3.846 |
| Fabricated metal products |
$2.577 |
| Chemicals |
$2.402 |
| Machinery |
$2.2187 |
| Nonmetallic mineral products |
$2.089 |
| Paper products |
$1.335 |
| Plastics, rubber products |
$1.006 |
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