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Minnesota Manufacturers Are Confident and Ready for Anything in 2016
[May 03, 2016]

Minnesota Manufacturers Are Confident and Ready for Anything in 2016


Minnesota's manufacturers are feeling remarkable levels of across-the-board confidence in the financial prospects for their companies in 2016, according to the eighth annual State of Manufacturing® survey. At the same time, the survey reveals a growing concern about the U.S. economy.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160503005394/en/

The survey is produced by Enterprise Minnesota (www.enterpriseminnesota.org) and is the most comprehensive survey of Minnesota's manufacturers. Rob Autry, president of Meeting Street Research, the SOM's pollster for all eight years of the survey, conducted telephone interviews with 400 manufacturing executives throughout the state. The phone survey is complemented by 16 focus groups of manufacturing executives and new this year, Enterprise Minnesota held three focus groups with students at Dunwoody College of Technology, Anoka Technical College, and Alexandria Technical & Community College.

An impressive majority of manufacturing executives-90 percent-report they are confident about the financial future of their firms, which is the highest recorded mark in the survey's eight-year history and the third consecutive year that confidence has climbed.

Manufacturers expressed this exuberance even as their confidence in the economy sits at its lowest levels since 2012. A near majority of manufacturing executives (48 percent) predicts the economy will remain flat, six percentage points higher than last year. Thirty-two percent believe we're heading into a year of economic expansion, while the number of manufacturers who believe we're heading into recession is at 15 percent, twice where it was two years ago. Significantly, nearly eight in ten of the respondents who believe the U.S. is recession bound think their companies are well positioned to handle it.

The cost of health care coverage again tops the list of concerns faced by manufacturers (51 percent), which is down 20 points from a high of 71 percent in 2011. Government policies and regulations (41 percent), attracting and retaining qualified workers (32 percent), and economic and global uncertainty (29 percent) rounded out the list of key concerns.

"Minnesota's manufacturers are enthusiastic about their prospects in 2016," said Enterprise Minnesota president and CEO Bob Kill. "The lessons they learned during the recession have made them strongly resilient and well-prepared to face the growing sense of economic uncertainty."



The results of the survey will be presented at a series of briefings throughout Minnesota from May 3 to May 24 in Minneapolis, Winona, Pine City, Fergus Falls, Owatonna, Rochester, Brainerd (News - Alert) Lakes, Mankato, Albert Lea, Alexandria, Elk River, Willmar, Hibbing, Bemidji, Litchfield, and Anoka. Click here for more information on State of Manufacturing events.

Pollster Rob Autry of Charleston, SC.-based Meeting Street Research, conducted phone interviews with 400 manufacturing executives, representing a geographically proportional cross-section of Minnesota between February 16 and February 25. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 4.9 percent.


Full survey top-line results and cross tabulations are available at www.stateofmanufacturing.com.

Platinum sponsors for The State of Manufacturing include: Bremer Bank; Granite Equity Partners; Gray Plant Mooty; Marsh & McLennan Agency; Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED); Risdall; and RSM.

Meeting Street Research is a leading national survey research company. Rob Autry has conducted all eight of The State of Manufacturing surveys.

About Enterprise Minnesota
Enterprise Minnesota is a ISO 9001:2008 certified consulting organization that works with medium and smaller manufacturing enterprises to help them compete and grow profitably, and also serves as the "voice" for the industry, raising visibility and appreciation for the value manufacturers provide our communities and the state's economy. Our affiliation with the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) further positions us to offer clients leading-edge services to improve manufacturing operations and strengthen business.

In the last five years alone Enterprise Minnesota has helped over 1,200 Minnesota companies gain access to strategies that increase efficiency and promote growth. Resulting from the organization's work, clients have realized a total positive economic impact of over $794 million dollars in sales, reduced costs by over $100 million and invested over $446 million in modernization, and added or retained over 8,800 jobs.


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