Manufacturing, after years of decline, has become an important source of job growth nationally since the downturn in 2008.
But the Denver-Aurora area starts from a weaker base and lags the nation when it comes to adding manufacturing jobs, according to a study out today from the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.
“The bounce back in Denver has really been very slow,” said Howard Wial, an economist at Brookings.
The Denver area, not counting Boulder, ranked 83rd among the 100 largest metro areas for its concentration of manufacturing jobs — 5.1 percent of total employment versus 8.5 percent nationally.
The metro area ranked 68th for manufacturing job growth between 2010 and 2011, at a 0.1 percent gain versus 2.7 percent nationally.
Denver’s geographic isolation is part of the problem, in that it makes shipping heavy goods to more populated areas costly. Local economic development officials have concentrated their efforts on the high-tech sector, where products can go in and out of favor — think storage devices.
But even within high tech, long touted as a local strength, the Brookings report shows that metro Denver lags.
About 20.9 percent of the area’s manufacturing jobs are classified as “very high-tech” versus only 16.1 percent for all metro areas. While better than the U.S. average, that ranks only 37th.
“Moderately high-tech” jobs, the next category down, account for 11.3 percent of metro Denver manufacturing jobs, compared with 18.6 percent nationally. Denver ranks 82nd in that category.
Manufacturing jobs tend to pay more, one reason they shouldn’t be dismissed. For example, “very high-end” technology manufacturing jobs average $94,249 in annual pay in Denver versus $55,954 for all jobs. Manufacturing also tends to be a solid base onto which higher-end service jobs can be added.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or
