PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island manufacturing industry’s health was given a letter score of a “D” by the Center for Business and Economics Research at Ball State University Thursday.
Of the nine grades on the scorecard, including manufacturing industry health, Rhode Island’s scores improved in three categories from 2018 to 2019, remained the same in four categories and worsened in two categories.
Manufacturing industry health declined to a D in 2018 from a D+ in 2017.
Year over year improvements in 2019:
- Sector diversification – Improved from a B to an A. The report analyzes the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to measure manufacturing sector diversity.
- Productivity and innovation – Improved from a D+ to a C-. The metric measures research and development expenditures, and patents issued annually – both on a per capita basis. It also looks at manufacturing productivity growth.
- Worker benefit costs – Score improved from a D to a C-. The metric was based on health care premiums and long-term health costs, workers compensation costs, and fringe benefit figures.
Year over year declines in 2019:
- Expected fiscal liability – Declined form a C- to a D. The metric measures unfunded state and local fiscal liabilities, average benefits and bond rankings.
- Global reach – Declined from a D to an F. The metric measures a state’s exports per capita and export growth, among other metrics.
Unchanged grades from 2018:
- Human capital: C-. Human capital rankings were based on educational attainment in the state on both a high school and collegiate level, as well as the share of adults in adult basic education, among other metrics.
- Logistics industry health: F. The logistics industry was measured by sector income as a share of total state income and employment per capita, as well as commodity flows by both rail and road, and infrastructure spending in each state.
- Manufacturing industry health: D. The health of the industry is measured by the total income earned by manufacturing employees in each state, the wage premium paid to manufacturing workers relative to the other states’ employees and the share of manufacturing employment per capita.
- Tax climate: D. The metric grades the impact of corporate taxes, income taxes, property taxes, unemployment insurance taxes and sales and use taxes.
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor. You may reach him at Bergenheim@PBN.com.