California leads U.S. in manufacturing jobs

WASHINGTON, D.C.

January 27, 2015 11:43am

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Making stuff is alive and well in the Golden State.

California has more manufacturing firms (38,741) and employees (1.2 million) than any other state, according to a report Tuesday from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The average annual payroll per employee for California manufacturing establishments rose 21.1 percent, from $49,187 in 2007 to $59,584 in 2012, while the value of shipments from the state’s manufacturing establishments increased 4.3 percent, from $491.4 billion in 2007 to $512.3 billion in 2012, the most recent year in the study.

Within the manufacturing sector in California, the computer and electronic product manufacturing subsector was the largest employer with 177,603 employees. Within this subsector, the radio and television broadcasting and wireless communications equipment manufacturing industry led employment with 28,153 employees.

Petroleum and coal products manufacturing reported the highest value of industry shipments of any manufacturing subsector in the state, up 17.0 percent from $77.3 billion in 2007 to $90.5 billion in 2012.

More than 45 percent of the manufacturing firms in California are located in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area (17,461), the Census Bureau says.

These establishments reported $211.1 billion in value of industry shipments in 2012. Los Angeles County was home to 12,760 of these companies; they employed 359,532 people and reported $163.8 billion in shipments in 2012.

California’s most populous city, Los Angeles, was home to 5,034 manufacturing establishments, employed 101,103 people and reported shipments of $43.5 billion in 2012.

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=27633