New Report Details Huge Impact of Shale Boom on U.S. Manufacturing

March 22 2014

A new report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors says the shale energy boom has led to dramatic increases in manufacturing around the country.

Here are some of the key findings in the report, “U.S. Metro Economies: Impact of the Manufacturing Renaissance from Energy Intensive Sectors” (note: link opens to PDF):

• Over the last three years, metro area manufacturing employment has expanded by an average annual rate of 1.7%. Energy intensive industry, in particular has been a key component in manufacturing expansion.
• The report forecast that through 2020, energy intensive manufacturing employment will expand by more than 1% annually nationwide with 72% of those jobs going to U.S. metro areas.
• From 2010 to 2012, energy intensive manufacturing sectors added over 196,000 jobs and increased real sales by $124 billion in the nation’s metro areas.
• In 2011 and 2012, demand from the burgeoning shale plays for new pipelines and mining equipment ignited the nation’s steel, iron, fabricated metals, and machinery manufacturing industries. In US metro areas, these sectors saw real sales and employment jump by 17% and 9.7% respectively.
• The profusion of available natural gas and oil resulted in a surge in plastic, rubber, resin and chemical manufacturing due to lower costs and increased refining volume; as a result these industries saw a combined employment increase of 2.6% across all metropolitan areas (2011-­‐2012).
• In 2012, metro areas accounted for greater than 78% of the total employment and 82% of the real sales in energy intensive manufacturing industries.
• Fabricated metals led the sector with 1.14 million jobs in 2012, a 9.8% increase during the period 2010-­‐ 2012.
• The machinery sector employed 848,695 in 2012, a 9.5% increase for the period 2010-­‐2012.
• Plastics and Rubber employed 491,345 with a 2.8% increase over the same period.
• Iron and steel mills employed 89,305 in 2012, and experienced a 10.7% increase in employment 2010-­‐ 2012.

Click here for a PDF of the full report or head on over to the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ website to read the full press release and the complete list of key findings.