#699 – Global Trades’ Best States for Manufacturing
Posted on | The Agurban
There are a lot of lists out there! We really like this list of Best States for Manufacturing, put together by Global Trades. We are sharing the highlights for each state, but the additional details are critical to the reason why the state made this list. A link to the full article is included at the end.
Global Trades’ Best States for Manufacturing
What makes a great state for manufacturing? It takes a combination of factors, like an existing industrial base, the availability of talent, investment incentives, and favorable tax and regulatory environments. Here are Global Trade’s choices for the states that have the best combinations of all of these.
Alabama. The state has seen a continued influx of manufacturing investment—much of it from the international auto industry—and it’s not hard to understand why. Alabama ranks fifth in the nation in auto production, with Toyota, Mazda, Mercedes, Hyundai, and Honda all locating factories here. Vehicles are now Alabama’s number-one export. Alabama also enjoys a leadership position in aerospace production.
Florida. Orlando may be best known as a tourist destination, but business leaders in Florida’s third-largest city are working at turning the area into one of the nation’s hubs for advanced manufacturing. Contrary to the city’s image, two-thirds of its economy is based on manufacturing, with companies like Lockheed, Siemens, and Mitsubishi all locating plants there.
Texas. The Lone Star State has one of the most competitive incentive programs in the country. The Texas Enterprise Fund awards cash grants as a financial incentive to close deals that bring significant job creation and capital investment to the state. Since 2004, TEF has invested $600 million across a number of industries, creating more than 80,000 jobs.
Georgia. The state’s Quick Start workforce development program is highly regarded, having trained over one-million employees in 6,500 projects, many of them for large-scale manufacturing. Quick Start’s experts have designed and implemented training programs for workers in aerospace, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, advanced manufacturing, and food and beverage, among other industries. The program is flexible and will provide training in classrooms, mobile sites, on site, or at customs sites at nearby technical colleges.
Mississippi. The state’s Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) promotes collaboration and cross-communication among state and local officials and prospective businesses for quick decision-making. The authority also works with local economic developers and state and local leaders to find the ideal site, and helps businesses apply for permits, and start the screening and hiring processes.
Michigan. The state’s Collateral Support Program helps companies acquire financing that might otherwise be unavailable, supplying pledged cash collateral accounts to lenders for approved projects. Grow Michigan, a public-private partnership, offers loans of up to $3 million in a secondary collateral position at attractive rates. This capital helps businesses perform on new contracts and/or finance acquisitions.
South Carolina. Manufacturing is one of the primary sector’s targeted by the state’s incentive packages. Three discretionary grant funds are administered by the South Carolina Coordinating Council for Economic Development to secure high-value projects.
Tennessee. Nissan, General Motors, Volkswagen, Bridgestone, Hankook, and Denso Manufacturing, Beretta USA, and Whirlpool are among the manufacturing companies calling Tennessee home. A right-to-work state, Tennessee has no personal income tax on wages and salaries and has a long history of bipartisan fiscal responsibility, reflected in its Triple A rate by all major rating services. According to The Tax Foundation, Tennessee has the lowest state debt per capita in the country and is the second lowest in the United States for state and local tax taxes paid per capita.
Ohio. Back in the day, manufacturing employed more than half the state’s workforce. Despite shrinking over the years, and even after taking a big hit during the Great Recession, the manufacturing sector remains a vital part of Ohio’s economy, employing one in eight Ohio workers. That makes the Buckeye State the state third largest for manufacturing in the nation, after the much-bigger California and Texas. Most Ohio manufacturers are small businesses: around 50 percent employ less than 10 people, and less than one half of one percent employ more than 1,000.