The Township Planning Commission is considering adding hundreds of acres of industrial land to the Township’s Master Plan – mostly around the M-45 and US-31 intersection. But why is this considered important?
It is acknowledged that our region has a shortage of industrial land – and both current businesses that want to expand and new businesses that want to migrate to our region are unable to do so.
But, more importantly, manufacturing jobs are “wealth creating” jobs because these jobs create durable goods that are sold outside of our region and bring salaries, wages and profits into our community. Further, every manufacturing job supports about 7 non-manufacturing jobs. And finally, manufacturers are a major supporter of charities and non-profits within our community.
The Chamber of Commerce notes that there are currently 19,651 jobs in the five communities of the Tri-Cities area. 8,527 (or 43.3%) of these jobs are in manufacturing.
In comparison, the percent of manufacturing jobs in Michigan is at 19.4% of the total jobs – which is less than half of what we find in our region.
And, the percent of manufacturing jobs in the United States is at 12.7% of the all jobs – which is less than a third of what we find in our region.
Bottom line – manufacturing jobs remain an economic strength for our region because they create wealth and a higher-than-normal standard of living for everyone. The Township wants to protect this economic base by allowing for manufacturing to expand into the future.
