Facts on Tennessee Manufacturing

New Report on Tennessee Manufacturing
By Center for Business and Economic Research
College of Business Administration
The University of Tennessee

The report documents the size, nature and changing fortunes of Tennessee’s manufacturing sector using data available from public sources. Teh authors hope that with a better understanding of manufacturing’s role in the economy—for Tennessee, the southeastern states and the U.S.—improved public and business policy in support of manufacturing can be developed.

The report concludes that manufacturing certainly does not play the same role in the economy that it played decades ago. Jobs in the manufacturing sector have declined as a share of overall jobs, in part because of rapid growth in the services sector. And in Tennessee there have been outright job losses in manufacturing dating back to 1998. At the same time, new jobs are being created by newly-locating and expanding manufacturers in the state. The economic forecast for the state actually calls for some net job creation in manufacturing in both 2006 and 2007. But as a share of overall jobs in Tennessee, manufacturing will continue to decline in the years ahead.

Download the full 145-page report here.