Spotlight: Manufacturing is Key to Building Stronger Communities

With 12.4 million employees in the U.S. producing goods that are consumed domestically or exported abroad, manufacturing is one of the keys to building stronger communities.

At EDA, we support locally-devised strategies to grow the economy through manufacturing in communities across the country.

Since January 2017, EDA has invested close to $86 million in 84 projects to help communities and regions strengthen their manufacturing competitiveness.

These included over $65 million in 47 projects that are expected to create and/or retain over 14,000 jobs and attract more than $3.4 billion in private investment.

EDA also invested over $20 million in 37 projects to support planning, research, technical assistance, access to capital, or other activities that are essential for successful manufacturing-related economic development and job creation in the future.

The “Success Stories” section of this issue of Innovate@EDA focuses on two of these recent locally-directed investments: one that is helping to transform a distressed area of St. Louis through hands-on, manufacturing-related education; and another that is supporting the growth of a flooring manufacturing company in West Virginia.

More EDA manufacturing success stories can be found here.