Baton Rouge is one of the top 10 U.S. metro areas when it comes to manufacturing workers’ productivity, according to a new report by Atlanta-based business management consulting firm Garner Economics.
According to the report, the Baton Rouge metro area’s gross regional product, or GRP, was $10.5 billion in 2014. With roughly 29,580 manufacturing employees, the GRP works out to a productivity value per employee of $356,288, the sixth-highest in the nation.
Also on the list, at No. 3 and 4, respectively, are the Lake Charles and New Orleans metro areas. Topping the list are the Corvallis, Oregon, and Durham, North Carolina, areas. San Francisco is No. 5.
“The most productive U.S. metro areas tend to be areas that fit one of two categories,” the report says. “The first is areas with major research universities such as Corvallis (Oregon State University) and Durham-Chapel Hill (University of North Carolina, NC State and Duke University), as manufacturing jobs in these areas are more likely to be in high-tech industries. The second category is areas with a heavy concentration of oil and gas production such as Lake Charles, Baton Rouge [and] Fairbanks, Alaska.”
The report notes manufacturing sector struggles have become a central theme in this year’s election cycle, especially in the areas hardest hit by the loss of manufacturing jobs. Still, Garner says the U.S. manufacturing productivity has continued to grow in spite of the jobs loss.
“Between 2000 and 2015, while the number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. declined by 29%, the real Gross Domestic Product for the manufacturing sector actually increased by 25%,” the report notes.
Exemplifying higher worker productivity, the report notes the average U.S. manufacturing worker contributed $141,000 toward GDP in 2010. That dollar amount rose to $322,000 by 2015.
“This represents a 90% increase in productivity in real dollars in just 15 years. Automation has played a key role in this dramatic increase—with more efficient manufacturing processes, fewer workers are needed to produce the same amount of goods,” the report reads.
