MANUFACTURING EXTENSION PARTNERSHIP (MEP) The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) serves Utah’s largest industry sector, Manufacturing. Established by Congress, MEP Centers are located throughout the U.S. and are affiliates of the National Institute of Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce. MEP Utah is a contract partner with GOED which administers state funding for the MEP program. The MEP Utah Center is located at Utah Valley University. Chartered to assist small and medium-sized manufacturers (<500 employees), the MEP potential service base includes 99% of the manufacturers in Utah. There are more than 3,000 manufacturers in Utah with only 39 employing more than 500 people. However, unlike Agriculture Extension Services MEP has more limited resources and less than 5% of the manufacturers have access to MEP in any given year. Those that are assisted by MEP report significant results. A study of the economic impacts of MEP of Utah prepared by Utah State University shows that MEP served 399 total companies in 2007. Major projects assisted 65 companies reporting measurable impacts. The USU study concluded MEP’s impact on the Utah economy to be: • Additional Industrial Output – $241.6M
Total wages for manufacturing exceed the average of all other industry sectors in Utah by almost $4 billion annually.
• Additional Indirect Business Taxes – $6.5M • Additional Wages – $60.5M
Avg. all other industry sectors
• Additional Jobs – 1,462 The nature of manufacturing in Utah is diverse, entrepreneurial, and falls under the classification of “small business”. Yet these small companies have large impacts on the state’s economy. Manufacturing provides significant employment with an industry payroll over $5.6 billion, which is $1.8 billion larger than the next industry sector and 3 times the average of the remaining 18 sectors.
$1.8B
MFG
$5.6B
$0.0
$2.0
$4.0
$6.0
Billion
Even though manufacturing employment in Utah is growing, further analysis raises areas of concern. Each of the following shows a small, but steady decline: • Utah’s manufacturing payroll as a percentage of total state covered payroll • The percentage of the average manufacturing wage rate above the average state salaried wage for all employment sectors
From the Utah Department of Workforce Services.
• Utah’s manufacturing employment as a percentage of total state covered employment • The number of manufacturing firms is decreasing as a percentage of total firms, and is not keeping up with the pace of overall economic increase
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Governor’s Office of Economic Development • Annual Report 2008
