Here’s The State Of Manufacturing In Colorado

The manufacturing industry in Colorado isn't doing so well, according to a new university study published Wednesday. The Ball State University study graded the health of each state’s manufacturing industry based on three categories: share of total income earned by manufacturing employees, wage premium paid to manufacturing workers relative to other states and share of manufacturing employment per capita.

Colorado received a grade of “D” for 2019 — the same score it received for 2018. The manufacturing industry refers to jobs that produce durable goods for consumers — cars, trucks, smartphones, computers, refrigerators, washing machines — and non-durable goods for consumers, such as clothes and processed foods.

Five states — Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and South Carolina — earned an “A” grade for manufacturing health in 2019. Four earned “F grades: Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and New Mexico.

The researchers also doled out grades for individual categories related to manufacturing: logistics industry health, human capital, worker benefit costs, tax climate, expected fiscal liability gap, global reach, sector diversification and productivity and innovation.

The logistics industry grade looks at how well each state moves goods, which is vital for manufacturing industry. Human capital refers to the quality of the workforce in a given state while the worker benefit cost category looks at things like health care premiums and workers’ compensation costs, which are increasingly important to businesses.

Tax climate, meanwhile, looks at how friendly the tax climate is for businesses and expected fiscal liability gap looks at things like unfunded liabilities — such as pension plans — which are a “good indicator” of the direction of future taxes and public services. Global reach looks at how well states are importing and exporting goods to other countries and sector diversification evaluates how diverse the manufacturing economy is in a state. Lastly, productivity and innovation looks at things like growth in manufacturing productivity, industry research and development expenditures per capita and the number of patents issued per capita each year.

Here are the 2019 grades for Colorado in the above categories:

Logistics health: D+
Human capital: B-
Worker benefit costs: B
Tax Climate: C
Expected Fiscal liability: D+
Global reach: D
Sector diversification: C
Productivity and innovation: C+

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.