Indiana is globally competitive: first among states in value-added manufacturing.

• Author: Sullivan, John
• Position: VIEWPOINT

INDIANA HAS MADE significant progress in attracting the world's top foreign manufacturing firms to our state. This is a testament to the state's highly skilled workforce, optimum geographic location for distribution and logistics, and having the infrastructure and service support needed for these companies to compete in the global marketplace. Perhaps less well known is the fact that Indiana's manufacturers are globally competitive in their own right when measured by the strength of the state's manufacturing exports.

It is well documented that trade and the expansion of global exports are directly linked to America's and by extension, Indiana's economic vitality and future standards of living. Indiana's export of goods and services contributes to its economic growth, increases labor productivity and creates jobs in the manufacturing and service sectors that pay wages well above state and national averages. The strength of Indiana's manufacturing exports may surprise some individuals and can be illustrated with some illuminating statistics:

* Manufactured goods represent an overwhelming percentage of Indiana exports (approximately 90 percent of Indiana's exports based on 2005 data).

* In 2005, export-supported jobs linked to the manufacturing sector accounted for 7.1 percent of Indiana's total private-sector employment (ranking Indiana eighth nationally) with more than one-sixth (18.1 percent) of all manufacturing workers in Indiana relying on exports for those jobs.

* Those jobs are not confined to large, multinational corporations: a total of 5,300 companies exported goods from Indiana in 2005. And encouragingly, 4,452 (84 percent) were small and medium-sized enterprises--companies with fewer than 500 employees.

Indiana's manufacturing exports also rank high when compared to other states: Indiana's export shipments of merchandise in 2006 totaled $22.6 billion, the 13th-largest figure among the states. Indiana increased its merchandise exports $7.7 billion (52 percent) from 2002 to 2006, representing the 11th-biggest dollar...