Catalyst Connection, in partnership with the Allegheny Conference on Community and Economic Development, is releasing the 2024 State of Manufacturing Scorecard and Brief which shows that the region’s manufacturing sector is strong and that there are opportunities to become a more significant engine for economic growth. The Brief confirms our experience that manufacturers are adding jobs with high average wages and supporting indirect and induced jobs at a rate of more than two and a half times manufacturing employment. Over the past decade, the productivity gap between our region and the rest of the state, as well as the country, has been narrowing. In the past two years, this regional difference has been reduced to less than 1%, and the national disparity is now less than 10%.
The Brief’s key findings include manufacturing being the 5th-largest employment sector in the region, with a year-over-year increase of nearly 4% that could be even higher if employers could fill all of their open positions; almost 90,000 people employed by manufacturers, up nearly 4%; four times the national average of manufacturing employment in fabricated metals, which is undoubtedly a result of our industrial heritage; more than 2,800 manufacturing establishments, 23rd among U.S. metropolitan areas, which means that as the 27th-largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA), Pittsburgh is “punching above its weight” in this category; and an average annual wage of more than $90,000, nearly 4% higher than the average job in southwestern Pennsylvania.
By sub-sector, fabricated metal products, machinery, primary metal, computer and electronic products, and food were the top five based on employment generated. These industries have historically been southwestern Pennsylvania’s top manufacturing sub-sectors and collectively accounted for 56% of the total manufacturing jobs in the region. Although paper manufacturing, textile products, and beverage and tobacco products are the three fastest-growing sub-sectors in the region, their size by total employment is relatively small.
In the realm of exports, the Pittsburgh region ranked 37th nationally. Chemicals were the largest exported manufacturing product constituting 18.7% of the total exports and were valued at more than $2 billion. Primary metals manufacturing exports, totaling $1.6 billion, accounted for 14.6% of the region’s total exports, and both the chemicals and primary metals sectors realized a 35% year-over-year increase in export value. However, over five years, primary metals manufacturers experienced a reduction in export value of 2.4% while chemicals grew 56.7%.
What the Numbers Mean
The Brief’s results are significant because manufacturing companies contribute to a high quality of life in the communities where they operate. When a manufacturing company grows, everyone in the community can prosper, sometimes significantly, with well-paying jobs that lift families out of poverty. Because manufacturing companies have an outsized economic impact in our region, we can use the results to create benchmarks for individual companies’ growth, productivity, and employment, and provide technical, capital, and workforce development assistance to help every company meet and exceed those benchmarks.
As for specific Catalyst Connection programs that can help manufacturers, our growth-oriented services can lead to further increases in gross regional product, our operational excellence and technology deployment services can help companies achieve productivity gains, and our workforce development activities can help companies hire and develop talent.
The Way Forward
The Brief’s findings provide us with evidence-based support for securing additional funding to help improve the region’s economic prosperity by strengthening the manufacturing sector. Because Catalyst Connection is highly engaged with educational institutions, community partners, government organizations, and many other advocates that can influence and enact policies and investments to support the growth of the manufacturing sector, we are in a position to act quickly on the Brief’s findings and have already begun that process.
One area of focus is organizational development, which is the enhancement of organizational effectiveness through strategies such as culture change and leadership development. Specifically, under the leadership of David Rea, Managing Director of Organizational Development, we are helping manufacturers improve the effectiveness of their talent acquisition, workforce training, culture transformation, and strategic planning activities, as well as designing new programs as needs arise.
Likewise, the Brief will help to inform our workforce development activities, which under the leadership of Scott Dietz, Director of Workforce Development, consist of efforts in primary and secondary (K-12) education, pre-employment training and upskilling, and pre-apprenticeship to apprenticeship and community college career pathways, to prepare people for manufacturing sector jobs and build careers.
As the manufacturing landscape continues to change with a wider variety of manufacturers operating in our region, the skills required of workers are changing. To help manufacturers find the qualified workers they need to keep their businesses competitive, we are forming new partnerships with training providers, leadership development consultants, and other organizations and individuals who can bolster our efforts to address the Brief’s findings most directly. In doing so, our goal is to benefit the largest number of manufacturers in southwestern Pennsylvania.
At Catalyst Connection, we are proud to be serving manufacturers for over 35 years and look forward to continuing to support the growth and vibrancy of manufacturing in southwestern Pennsylvania. To discuss how we can begin working together, or to strengthen our relationship, contact us!