As a third-generation manufacturer and chair of NJBIA's Manufacturing Council, I have been dismayed over the last several years to watch many good manufacturing jobs leave the State.

I have been even more dismayed by seeming public apathy toward the continued erosion of what was, a short generation ago, New Jersey's greatest economic asset.

As more than 20 manufacturers prepare to converge on Trenton Thursday for NJBIA's "Made in New Jersey Day" at the State House, I want to share with you why I think manufacturing is so important to New Jersey and its people, and why it should stay at the top of the State's public policy agenda.

If manufacturing businesses were allowed to disappear out of neglect, it would be a great and irretrievable blow to the economy and to the hundreds of thousands of people it employs. We should not allow this to happen.

Here are some facts about manufacturing in New Jersey, as documented in the recent New Jersey Policy Research Organization report, Why Manufacturing Counts in New Jersey.

Manufacturing's contributions to the State economy, and the well-being of its working people, are impressive. Let's start with jobs.

• Many jobs. New Jersey still boasts 312,000 manufacturing jobs, more than 130,000 of them from the northern counties of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic and Union. When you factor in the business we give to local vendors and suppliers, you can add at least another 150,000 jobs directly supported by manufacturers Statewide.
  
  
• Good jobs. A manufacturing job isn't just any job. It's a really good job, paying above-average wages and benefits. New Jersey manufacturers paid an average wage of $57,220 in 2005. This is 25 percent higher than the Statewide average. And let's not forget the benefits.

  According to a recent study, U.S. manufacturers paid an average of $9.65 per hour in health, pension and other benefits. That's 42 percent more than the average benefit paid by all private-sector employers.

• Big economic impact. Manufacturers also power New Jersey's economic output. Our sales generate about $45 billion in output, 11 percent of the State total. Our output is equivalent to the combined contributions of the information, agriculture, mining, utilities and construction sectors.

Manufacturing also has a great multiplier effect on the economy. Every $1 of final manufactured output generates an additional $1.37 in other intermediate outputs. That's a fancy way of saying manufacturers impact the State economy in a huge way!

As chief executive of the Falstrom Co. in Passaic, a 60-employee company that makes precision metal products, I can tell you that we give plenty of good business to two New Jersey gasket makers, one New Jersey steel supplier, four local machine shops, and many suppliers of hardware, paint and office materials.

There are obviously many good reasons to keep manufacturing in New Jersey. There is also a very organized campaign to make sure this happens.

A receptive ear

As chair of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association's Manufacturing Council, it is my job to keep a fire under the association's campaign for manufacturing renewal in New Jersey.

I am pleased that our campaign has found a receptive ear in the Legislature. A majority of legislators are members of the informal manufacturing caucus, and they have taken steps to help manufacturers. Several laws have been passed in recent years benefiting manufacturers, including a number of tax-saving measures.

High cost of business

But New Jersey still remains one of the highest-cost states in the entire nation in which to do business, a fact that is documented in many national studies.

The high cost of Falstrom's health insurance and energy bills tells me all I need to know about this fact. It's probably the biggest reason why 110,000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared from New Jersey over the last six years.

My message to New Jersey policymakers is this. If we want to keep New Jersey's economy growing, we should keep its factories humming. And if we want to keep those factories humming, we should look for ways to lower, not raise, the cost of doing business in New Jersey.

Clifford F. Lindholm III is chief executive officer of the Falstrom Co., a small contract manufacturer of precision metal products based in Passaic.

Back to Manufacturing Counts Home Page

Back to NJBIA Home Page