The Best-Paying Cities for Millennials

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The Best-Paying Cities for Millennials

November 27th, 2020 HireAHelper Leave a comment

Numbering over 72 million, millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers to be the largest living adult generation. Millennials, defined by the Pew Research Center as people born between 1981–1996, are now in their prime home-buying years. However, millennial homeownership rates have lagged that of older generations—in part, because while home prices have been rising, income has not kept pace. According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, median annual income for full-time working millennials was $42,000 in 2019, leaving many millennials struggling to afford a home.

Nationally, data from the Census Bureau shows that while the homeownership rate in the U.S. was 64.6% in 2019, the rate for millennials was just 39.9%. The median income for 25 to 34-year-olds has increased 2.5-fold since 1980; however, housing prices have more than tripled over the same time period. Median income growth for that age group kept pace with housing prices until the year 2000 when housing prices began to rise more steeply. Although housing prices dropped significantly during the Great Recession, they have been rising rapidly since 2012.

At the state level, millennials living in Minnesota and Massachusetts had the highest median incomes after adjusting for cost of living, at $51,282 and $50,137 in 2019, respectively. Due to its very high cost of living, millennials living in Hawaii tend to earn less with a cost-of-living adjusted median income of $37,849 last year. The cost of living in Florida is about the same as the national average, but millennials in Florida earned just $34,990 in adjusted median income, the lowest in the country.

To find the best-paying metropolitan areas for millennials, researchers at HireAHelper analyzed the latest data on income and home prices from the U.S. Census Bureau and Zillow. The researchers ranked metro areas according to the cost-of-living adjusted median income for full-time working millennials. Researchers also calculated the unadjusted median income for full-time millennials, the median home price, and the millennial homeownership rate.

To improve relevance, only metropolitan areas with at least 100,000 people were included in the analysis. Additionally, separate rankings were generated for small (100,000–349,999 residents), midsize (350,000–999,999 residents), and large (1,000,000 or more residents) metros.

Here are the large metropolitan areas with the highest median income for full-time millennials, after adjusting for the cost of living.

Metro	Rank	Median income for full-time millennials (cost-of-living adjusted)	Median income for full-time millennials (unadjusted)	Median home price	Millennial homeownership rate	Cost of living (compared to the national average)
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	1	$60,201	$77,900	$1,219,074	26.6%	+29.4%
San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA	2	$53,191	$70,000	$1,113,664	25.0%	+31.6%
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	3	$51,727	$58,400	$555,689	36.3%	+12.9%
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH	4	$51,664	$59,000	$520,206	35.4%	+14.2%
Pittsburgh, PA	5	$51,557	$48,000	$172,719	44.3%	-6.9%
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	6	$50,934	$60,000	$455,038	38.0%	+17.8%
Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT	7	$48,972	$50,000	$246,266	41.3%	+2.1%
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	8	$48,733	$50,000	$307,156	48.8%	+2.6%
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN	9	$48,667	$43,800	$201,822	43.9%	-10.0%
Kansas City, MO-KS	10	$48,439	$45,000	$218,314	43.9%	-7.1%
St. Louis, MO-IL	11	$47,967	$43,650	$188,845	48.0%	-9.0%
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO	12	$47,664	$50,000	$462,724	42.9%	+4.9%
Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI	13	$47,489	$45,020	$200,213	35.4%	-5.2%
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD	14	$46,860	$50,000	$307,675	44.3%	+6.7%
Columbus, OH	15	$46,790	$43,000	$223,010	37.9%	-8.1%
United States	–	$42,000	$42,000	$259,906	39.9%	N/A

For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on HireAHelper’s website: https://www.hireahelper.com/lifestyle/best-paying-cities-for-millennials/

Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, Warehousing

20 COMMUNITIES THAT ARE IDEAL FOR WAREHOUSING AND DISTRIBUTION CENTERS

November 26th, 2020 Anthony Pignataro Leave a comment

Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the nation into a series of lockdowns, warehouses large and small were sprouting all over the U.S. Once the pandemic hit, and lockdowns forced much of the nation to remain at home, e-commerce spiked like never before, and that’s been driving up the demand for even more distribution facilities.

Since the lockdowns began, Amazon has hired 175,000 new employees and beefed up its distribution network across the country, according to the Houston Business Journal. In April 2020, the Dallas Morning News reported that the distribution sector was seeing record business because of the pandemic.

“We have already seen that warehouse operations are proving to be more essential than ever,” Michael Caffey, president of the analyst firm CBRE’s South-Central Division and Latin America, told the paper. “The long-term effects of COVID-19 may boost industrial demand as retailers work to ensure they have adequate inventory levels to meet consumer demand. … In addition, COVID-19 and its associated quarantines are creating new online consumers, which will further increase e-commerce’s share of total retail sales.”

While new and larger warehouses are going up all over the U.S., here are 20 communities where demand seems especially high.

Chicago, Illinois

The market for warehouses and distribution in Chicago has been massive for years—fed by e-commerce and cold-storage, according to a 2019 post on the Chicago real estate news website The Real Deal. Even legalized recreational marijuana is expected to help fuel the warehouse expansion. And it was recently ranked very high in a 2018 CBRE analysis of future warehouse development. “In the smaller cities you see more fluctuations, but Chicago is one of the largest markets in the country and is just really sustainable,” CBRE Senior Vice President Whit Heitman told the Chicago Business Journal at the time.

Riverside, California

The growth of e-commerce has been driving warehouse construction in California’s Inland Empire for at least the past five years, and there’s no end in sight, according to a January 2020 article in the Riverside Press Enterprise. In fact, the region accounted for 21 of the largest lease deals in the nation in 2019—17.5 million square feet of warehouses and distribution centers. Of particular note was that a full million of that square footage belonged to Nordstrom’s new Riverside warehouse. The reasons for the high demand include proximity to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and a huge workforce that includes 141,000 logistics-related workers in Riverside and nearby San Bernardino Counties.

Houston, Texas

A steadily increasing population has led the Greater Houston Partnership to call that city and its surrounding metropolitan area a “global logistics and distribution hub,” according to a June 2020 Houston Business Journal story, and it’s easy to see why. The retail giant Amazon already operates a 1-million-square foot fulfillment center there, another 855,000-square-foot center, a few smaller facilities, and in June committed to building another fulfillment center that will encompass nearly a million square feet. In 2017, the Houston Chronicle reported that there was more than 6 million square feet in the city dedicated to warehousing and distribution—a 60 percent increase over the previous two years.

Detroit, Michigan

Even in the midst of a pandemic, people need to eat, which is why Lineage Logistics’ cold storage warehouse in Novi, just outside Detroit, announced that it was hiring 2,000 workers in March, as practically everyone else went into lockdown. According to a March 16 post on Crain’s Detroit Business news site, the labor increase is due to Lineage’s retail customers seeing a “20 percent to 50 percent increase” in sales as restaurants closed and grocery stores hurried to pick up the massive new demand. Growth in warehouse and distribution in Detroit has been steadily rising for the past five years, with Amazon opening a massive new fulfillment center in nearby Romulus in 2018.

Richmond, Virginia

In 2018, the firm CBRE declared that Richmond’s industrial warehouse market was in the midst of a “golden age,” according to an article that year in Virginia Business. Proximity to the Port of Richmond, a large population and growth in the e-commerce sector have led to growth that really began back in 2012, when Amazon opened a large distribution facility in the city. Since then, the size of the new warehouses began increasing along with their quantity—these days, the demand is for warehouses from 200,000- to 1 million square feet, according to Virginia Business.

Middlesex County, New Jersey

While the entire state of New Jersey has experienced considerable warehouse development (its location between Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., makes it an ideal distribution hub), Middlesex County is a powerhouse on its own. In fact, in 2017 WHYY reported that the area—which is just off the Jersey Turnpike—is “internationally known as a prime location for warehouses.” In 2019 alone, Wayfair executed a 950,000-square-foot lease there, while Crate & Barrel opted for an 870,000-square-foot operation, according to an October 2019 post on ReBusiness Online. In early 2020, MyCentralJersey reported that the Rockefeller Group proposed redeveloping an old Union Carbide factory in the county into a 420,000-square-foot warehouse.

Atlanta, Georgia

Considering that Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest airport in the world, and the city has been a logistical hub since before the Civil War, it’s no wonder that Atlanta holds so many warehouses. In fact, the city caters to a variety of business, education and government distribution networks and facilities, according to the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. And many of the facilities already built and under construction in Atlanta are both large and high-tech—able to accommodate both large fleets of vehicles as well as robots and drones. In just one quarter of 2018, more than 16 million square feet of warehouse space was under construction, according to an Atlanta Business Chronicle story that year.

Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas

Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, warehouse operations are expanding in North Texas. In mid-April 2020, the Dallas Morning News reported that nearly 24 million square feet of warehouse space was under construction in the region. What’s more, the newspaper reported that warehouse demand there has run in the 20 million square feet range for the past four years. And with e-commerce making huge gains during the pandemic, industry analysts are predicting the demand won’t lessen anytime soon. “Increasing demand for goods bought online, especially food, will fuel the need for distribution facilities at a pace much higher than in the current cycle,” Michael Caffey, president of CBRE’s South-Central division and Latin America, said in the Morning News article.

Columbia, South Carolina

The Midlands region of South Carolina has long been home to giant distribution centers belonging to a range of companies, including Target, Home Depot and Amazon, the growth of which is closely linked to the rise of e-commerce. In fact, warehouse facilities make up the largest portion of the Midlands industrial real estate market (more than 44 million square feet), according to a July 2019 article in Columbia Regional Business Report. A late 2019 report from Colliers International found that the region would continue to grow due to “convenient logistic systems, a vibrant business climate, positive capital investment and low unemployment rates.”

Fernley, Nevada

For the past few years, Fernley has developed itself as Northern Nevada’s logistics hub. “It is particularly well-situated for linkages between rail, trucking and warehousing operations,” Robert Hooper, Northern Nevada Development Authority president and CEO, told KTVN News in June 2018. As Hooper said that, the powersports company Polaris was starting construction on a 475,000-square-foot distribution center in the town of about 21,000 people that’s about a half hour east of Reno. Since then, even larger facilities have been envisioned for Fernley, including an 815,000-square-foot warehouse that will be part of the new—and sprawling—Victory Logistics District, according to an April 2020 report in The Nevada Appeal. The new facilities, developers say, will include 40-foot clear heights, which will allow tenants to store more palletized products.

Portland, Oregon

While the growth in e-commerce has been responsible for massive new warehouses throughout the country, in Portland online retail is spurring growth in small warehouse construction. According to a March 2019 Oregon Business article, many smaller retailers who sell their products online are needing warehouse space to avoid the storage fees companies such as Amazon charge. In fact, many of these smaller retailers are looking to self-storage facilities for their needs, Oregon Business reports. In 2018, the real estate market analysis firm Yardi Matrix reported that Portland had one of the highest rates of self-storage facility development in America.

Phoenix, Arizona

Few cities in the U.S. are better equipped for warehouses and distribution than Phoenix. The biggest reason is undoubtedly the geography—Phoenix is relatively close to a variety of major cities throughout the Southwest, connected by a variety of major freeways. The hot and dry climate is also a contributing factor. According to a 2018 Colliers International Industrial Market Report, 7 million of the 7.8 million square feet of new industrial space in Phoenix that year was dedicated to warehousing and distribution. There are currently half a dozen major warehouses and distribution facilities planned for Phoenix and the surrounding area, according to an October 2019 report by the AZ Big Media publishing company.

York County, Pennsylvania

Central Pennsylvania is critical for warehouses and distributors, and York County is right in the thick of it. There are dozens of centers located there, mostly along the I-83 corridor between Harrisburg and Baltimore, and they are key to distribution for many East Coast cities, according to a March 2020 York Dispatch story. And the growth is continuing: Kinsley Properties—which already owns several warehouses in the county—has plans to build a new 175,000-square-foot warehouse along the corridor this year.

Birmingham, Alabama

Because the city sits at the juncture of four major interstates and is served by six rail lines, Birmingham is a natural distribution point. In October 2019, the Birmingham Business Journal reported that Amazon was preparing to build a nearly 100,000-square-foot warehouse in that city, which industry analysts said would help the e-commerce giant more toward same-day delivery. The Business Journal revealed that the warehouse would be up and running by the end of 2020. This facility followed an even larger one—an 825,000 square footer—that the company built in 2018 in Bessemer, which is just minutes away from Birmingham.

Miami, Florida

Warehouse demand—fueled largely by e-commerce—has been steadily rising in South Florida for the past few years. This isn’t surprising given the area’s close proximity to Central and South America and the Caribbean. And development is continuing into 2020. In fact, more than 3 million square feet of spec warehouse space is expected to come online this year, the Miami Herald reported in January. Four months later, The Real Deal South Florida Real Estate News reported that leases around Miami Airport were increasing in the logistics and transportation sectors—specifically in the 10,000-square-foot to 150,000-square-foot range.

Baltimore, Maryland

E-commerce has been expanding warehousing and distribution in Baltimore for the better part of a decade. In 2014, Amazon opened a massive 1-million-square-foot warehouse at an old General Motors plant in the city. A spokesperson for the online retailing giant told the Baltimore Sun at the time that the company chose the city because it put them closer to their customer base. (As the paper reported, the closest Amazon warehouse to Baltimore was 70 miles away at the time.) Since then, demand has only gone up; in fact, this past April, Amazon announced they would develop another 1-million-square-foot warehouse in Baltimore.

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville’s strategic location for shippers is unparalleled—Music City USA is served by three interstates, a navigable river and multiple rail lines. Since 2012, 3 million square feet of warehouse space has gone up in Nashville, according to a January 2020 article in The Tennessean. In late June 2020, Amazon—which is already building a massive office complex in Nashville—announced that it would also construct a 200,000-square-foot warehouse there, too. Like Portland, Oregon, Nashville is also seeing tremendous growth in the self-storage sector.

Cleveland, Ohio

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, growth in demand generated by e-commerce was far outstripping the supply of warehouses in Cleveland. And it’s not just Amazon, either: “A lot of companies are growing their delivery business, expanding their need for warehouse space,” News 5 in Cleveland reported in late February. Of course, Amazon is there, too, and the company announced in early July that it had leased a 434,000-square-foot warehouse in Cleveland to use as a new distribution facility, Cleveland.com reported. Around the same time, Amazon also announced plans to start using two other smaller warehouses in the Cleveland area.

Denver, Colorado

Warehouse and distribution have been growing in the greater Denver area for nearly 20 years, the Denver Post reported in February. And while Amazon already operates four large centers there, growth is also coming from FedEx, Walmart, Tempur-Pedic and even industrial hemp, the Post noted. In early 2019, GE Appliances cited Denver’s rapidly rising population growth as reason for it to open a new high-tech Denver Area Distribution Center, complete with RFID-tracking and parking for 100 trailers. The new facility would allow the company “to deliver products in three days or fewer to 90 percent of U.S. homes,” Mark Shirkness, vice president of Distribution for GE Appliances, said at the time.

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, the UPS Worldport hub just south of the airport and the city’s general centralized location are big reasons why warehouse development has been growing in Louisville for the past few years. This has all contributed to a “red hot” industrial market there, the Louisville Future email newsletter reported in 2018. “The strength of the Louisville industrial market has been going on for several years, as its position as a central transportation hub, especially including UPS Worldport, and development of large industrial parks have invited large warehousing facilities—and, especially, e-commerce fulfillment,” Louisville Future stated. That there was 3.5 million square feet of new industrial market construction in Louisville in just the first six months of 2018 would seem to say “red hot” is an understatement.

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SMALL POWERHOUSES: NICHE SPECIALTIES MAKE THESE 20 COMMUNITIES STAND OUT

November 25th, 2020 Anthony Pignataro Leave a comment

Niche cities are playing a key role in our nation’s economic development, according to the McKinsey Global Institute’s July 2019 report “The Future of Work in America.” Some of the cities, which the report’s authors call “small powerhouses,” are currently enjoying the fastest economic growth rates in the nation.

Inspired by this, we found 20 niche communities around the U.S. and outlined what it is that makes them special.

MATAGORDA COUNTY, TEXAS

Rice

For the past 120 years, rice has been a staple crop for Matagorda County, which is located in the coastal prairie region of Texas. So much so that the crop brings in $135 million every year to the county and surrounding area, according to the Matagorda County Economic Development Corporation. While drought in recent years has taken a toll on the farms, rice farmers have lately been diversifying with new enterprises and even niche marketing. Even with recent losses, the Texas Farm Bureau says Matagorda and nearby Colorado and Wharton counties account for 60 percent of the rice grown in the state.

TULARE, CALIFORNIA

Soil

Considered one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world, Tulare County sits atop old Tulare Lake, which accounts for the incredibly fertile soil. Farmers and agro-scientists have raved over the land for easily the last century. “The soil is known to contain in exact proportions the elements needed for the growth of citrus trees,” states the 1910 Report of the California State Agricultural Society. Today, the county grows a variety of citrus, stone fruits, nuts, berries and silage crops. Farm employment accounts for a quarter of all jobs in Tulare County, which has 45 crops worth more than $1 million in farm gate gross value, according to the Tulare County Farm Bureau.

CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Mushrooms

An astonishing half of all mushrooms grown in the U.S. comes from Chester County. Though mushrooms can grow anywhere (in fact, commercial mushrooms are typically grown indoors), since the late 1880s, farms started springing up in this part of Pennsylvania, according to a 2012 NPR report. Today, there are 60 farms here, producing a half-billion pounds of mushrooms every year. That’s about $400 million worth of Agaricus (also known as white button), Portobello, Cremini (also known as common), Shiitake and Oyster mushrooms every year. Agaricus mushrooms alone have 12.6 million square feet of growing space, according to the Chester County Agricultural Development Council.

ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS

Screws

Rockford calls itself the “Screw Capital of the World,” so you know it’s legit. Around the 1940s, when the city’s furniture-making industries began closing, the manufacturing of fasteners began to take off. By the 1960s, according to the Rockford Economic Development Council, the city was the fifth-largest fastener manufacturer in the nation. Though the city today is home to numerous automotive and aircraft manufacturing plants, it still produces many of the screws, bolts and fasteners we use.

ELKO, NEVADA

Gold

Nearly 80 percent of all the gold mined in the U.S. comes from mines in and around Elko, which is located in northeastern Nevada. The more than a dozen mines there produced about 5.6 million troy ounces of gold in 2018, all worth about $7 billion. Though gold production has historically followed a pretty harsh boom and bust cycle, the geologist John Muntean told Elko Daily Free Press in July 2018 that the area has been experiencing a gold rush “for close to 50 years.”

BROWNFIELD, TEXAS

Grapes

Located in West Texas, Brownfield and surrounding Terry County have very dry air, which while great for grape production, was for a long time hindered by the local government’s prohibition-dry politics. But that relaxed a few years ago, and now wine is booming there, thanks to 3,000 acres of grape production. In fact, Brownfield grows most of the grapes in the entire state of Texas. “I think Texas loves vineyards because it’s Jesus’ first miracle,” Katy Jane Seaton, co-owner of Farmhouse Vineyards, told KCBD in 2018.

PLANT CITY, FLORIDA

Strawberries

Considered the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World, Plant City (and surrounding Hillsborough County) has about 8,000 acres in production, according to the Florida Strawberry Growers Association. Given the area’s mild subtropical climate and extremely fertile soil, this is easy to understand. The fields add up to Florida being the nation’s second-highest strawberry producing state, behind California. The Florida growing season runs from around Thanksgiving to the end of March, which is when they’re typically the most affordable at the supermarket.

WICHITA, KANSAS

Aircraft

For the last century, manufacturers in Wichita have produced more than a quarter million aircraft—more than any other city on Earth. In fact, Wichita business leaders dubbed it “Air Capital City” way back in 1929. Today, more than half of the world’s light civilian airplanes came from plants in Wichita—Bombardier Learjet, Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft and so forth. The list of aircraft types includes trainers, biplanes, racing planes, crop dusters, seaplanes, personal aircraft and business jets. Plants in Wichita also supply huge quantities of parts for other aircraft manufacturers.

HATCH, NEW MEXICO

Chile peppers

Hatch is a tiny town (pop. 1,680) with a huge reputation. Chile peppers are a huge crop in New Mexico, and much of them are grown here. Hatch chiles are world famous, known for their earthy taste and slow-burning heat. When roasted, they’re almost buttery. Some say the soil in the Hatch Valley provides the key to the peppers, while others point to the area’s 4,000-foot altitude (the peppers need hot days and cool nights to grow). “Hatch is considered the Napa Valley of chile,” Chris Franzoy, owner of the Hatch Chile Factory, told The New York Times in December 2019.

MORTON, ILLINOIS

Pumpkins

Officials in the village of Morton, located just outside Peoria, consider their little hamlet the “Pumpkin Capital of the World” because an astonishing 85 percent of all canned pumpkin on the planet comes from the plant there constructed back in 1920. Nestle USA/Libby’s owns the plant now, and it covers 5,000 acres. “There are also pumpkin farms surrounding this whole area,” Village President Ronald Rainson told a CBS Chicago reporter back in 2014. Morton gets good sunlight, farmers say, and the soils are varied, allowing for both early and late planting.

ELKHART, INDIANA

Recreational vehicles

When you see a big RV rolling down the road, there’s a very good chance it came from Northern Indiana. That region—and the town of Elkhart, especially—manufactures about 80 percent of all RVs found in the world. According to author Al Hesselbart, who documented Indiana’s manufacturing history in his book The Dumb Thing Sold… Just Like That, it all started in the 1930s when three guys decided to start making trailers in their Northern Indiana backyards. The area made sense, given that it’s located in the heart of America, making it easy for plants to ship their trailers around the county.

SANDERSVILLE, GEORGIA

Kaolinite

Somewhere between 50 million and 100 million years ago, massive quantities of aluminum silicate began washing down from the Piedmont Hills in Georgia. Eventually, these particles settled in a prehistoric sea that covered what is now Sandersville, located about halfway between Augusta and Macon. Known as kaolinite, this mineral is a vital ingredient in more than 100 modern products, including paper, ceramics, cosmetics, paint and even rocket nosecones. Every year, about 2.5 million tons of kaolinite is shipped out of Georgia, much of it from in and around Sandersville, where officials say the mining is an $800 million business and the Peach State’s largest volume export.

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

Horseradish

Three counties in Southern Illinois—Madison, Monroe and St. Clair—account for between 60 percent and 80 percent of all the horseradish grown in the nation. According to a 2018 article in St. Louis Magazine, there are three reasons for this. First, families that initially began farming horseradish back in the late 1880s have chosen to stay put. Second, much of the land is potash—extremely fertile soil that was once covered by the Mississippi River. And third (and most surprising): The sulfur pollutants released by the old steel mills in the area actually proved beneficial to the horseradish, actually giving the plant its characteristic heat, which is a product of its grating. In fact, the sulfur was so good to the horseradish that farmers today add it to the soil, making up for its loss from the closure of the steel mills.

DALTON, GEORGIA

Carpet

Dalton makes wall-to-wall carpet. Since the 1890s, mills there have produced so much carpet that today it’s said that 90 percent of all wall-to-wall carpet in the world was made within 65 miles of Dalton, which is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 2015, Atlas Obscura reported that the mills in and around Dalton produced a whopping 12.2 billion square feet of carpet every year—“enough to cover the entirety of Hong Kong in a thick, rich shag.” Built atop a mammoth bedspread industry that dated to 1895 in Dalton, the carpet mills benefitted from close proximity to dyeing and finishing firms.

WENATCHEE, WASHINGTON

Apples

Since 1872, people have grown apples in Wenatchee, located in north-central Washington. According to the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center, city boosters in the first decade of the 20th century pointed to the area’s volcanic soils, sunshine, abundant water, the absence of high winds and cold nighttime temperatures as reasons why apples thrived there. And they still do—today, there are more than 1,700 fruit growers in the area surrounding Wenatchee, producing more than half the fresh apples consumed in the country.

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

Caviar

Though caviar has been raised in the Sacramento area (specifically, the tiny nearby town of Elverta) since the 1970s, it was only recently that the area won the distinction of producing the best fish eggs in the nation. Today, sturgeon are commercially raised in the Sacramento area (they have long thrived in the Sacramento River), thanks in great part to the poaching, over-fishing and pollution that damaged other caviar spots in the United States. In fact, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2013 that Sacramento sturgeon produce 70 to 80 percent of all American caviar produced every year.

HIGH POINT, NORTH CAROLINA

Furniture

High Point, located between Greensboro and Winston-Salem in North Carolina, is the largest producer of furniture in the nation. The earlier furniture built there dates to the late 1700s, and access to nearby forests made it easy for furniture-makers to thrive. The industry really took off in the late 1800s, when the Southern Railway came to town, allowing for easy distribution. According to a May 2019 story in House Beautiful, the city today boasts 12 million square feet of showroom space, which is roughly the equivalent of 200 football fields, and it hosts the massive High Point Market showing off the industry’s latest designs every April and October.

BEND, OREGON

Microbreweries

According to the Bend Chamber of Commerce, there’s one brewery in Bend for every 4,500 residents in the state—the highest per capita rate in Oregon. There are breweries (and brew festivals) throughout Bend, which is located about three hours from Portland. Situated by the Deschutes River and the surrounding mountains and forests of Ponderosa Pine, Bend’s 20 or so breweries are legendary in the craft and microbrew scene. In fact, Deschutes Brewery is the eighth-largest craft brewery in the United States.

JAMESTOWN, NORTH DAKOTA

Honey

Bees are big business in this tiny North Dakota town, which is located near the middle of the state. Many of the state’s 350,000 hives are located in and around this town of 15,000 people, according to the American Bee Journal. Throughout the Peace Garden State, hives produce as much as 31 million pounds of honey, often leading the nation in production. The state’s wide-open prairies and low population make for a perfect habitat for bees, National Geographic reported in 2016, though many North Dakota farmers are increasingly converting their land to corn and soybean growing, diminishing the land available for bee production.

LEWISVILLE, TEXAS

Men’s shirts

Thanks to Hong Kong-based The Apparel Group opening a 250,000-square-foot distribution center in Lewisville, one in six men’s shirts in the U.S. came from this town, located just north of Dallas. While the shirts are made in Asia, they’re designed in Lewisville, according to a 2017 Dallas Morning News story. The warehouse itself can hold a quarter-million shirts on hangers. The center opened in Lewisville to be close to the buying and distribution centers of Dillard’s and J.C. Penney, which are located in nearby Fort Worth.

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Why Buying a Small Business Now is a Bad Idea

November 25th, 2020 Terry Monroe Leave a comment

Normally, I am a proponent of buying small businesses.

The data shows they make the world go round. The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, which defines a small business as a firm with fewer than 500 employees, states there are over 30 million such enterprises in the U.S.

But a convergence of factors has made the economic environment less favorable to small businesses, and I would hold off on buying one at the present time. Here are a few reasons why:

Volatility. Change is everywhere. Along with the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a change in the nation’s political leadership means there could be more regulation. The possibility of more business interruption exists. Unless you own a strong, established business in an area that has survived the first shutdown and your business is considered somewhat essential, the volatility of operating a company with an interruption in cash flow means the business may not make it.

Continuing supply-chain issues. This remains an issue nine months into the pandemic. Shelves in stores are still not fully stocked. Furniture stores and other types of businesses are waiting months to get the necessary components to build inventory. Supply-chain disruptions can affect small businesses in numerous ways: reduce revenue, cause issues with production, and inflate costs.

Changing buying habits. Some buying habits have been permanently altered, and a vaccine for COVID-19 won’t substantially change those habits. There will be more online shopping and more “contactless” shopping. Anything that involves interacting with people will be affected, especially retail.

Changing business strategies. Buying a business is about buying a cash-flow stream, but what businesses are going to be around in the next five years? Disruption in how a business operates can change its core strategy and render the business no longer viable. Think of Blockbuster Video and Netflix, or your local enclosed mall shops and no-contact shopping with Amazon.

Tightening loans. Money is probably never going to get much cheaper to borrow than what it is now, but lenders are more cautious, too. It may be easier to get a home loan for your personal residence, but getting a commercial loan to buy a business is a different ballgame, and lenders are concerned about the unknown in small businesses going forward.

The solution is to slow down and really do your homework. Research and study the marketplace. What kinds of businesses have not been affected dramatically by the pandemic? Which ones won’t have additional regulation imposed on them in the future?

There are lots of businesses to choose from, but be selective. If you find a business that meets your criteria with good cash flow and a promising future, there is a good chance you may get a discount due to the unknowns of regulation and another pandemic. Not all business owners have the luxury of taking their time to sell; some have an urgency to sell. So in that scenario, there is a good chance you could leverage the reasons I mentioned to not buy a small business. Those same reasons could get you a discount on the purchase of the business.

Timing is everything in life, and with proper due diligence and good timing, you may get yourself a good business at a good price.

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Terry Monroe (www.terrymonroe.com), is founder and president of American Business Brokers & Advisors (ABBA) and author of Hidden Wealth: The Secret to Getting Top Dollar for Your Business with ForbesBooks. Monroe has been in the business of establishing, operating, and selling businesses for more than 35 years. As president of ABBA, which he founded in 1999, he serves as an advisor to business buyers and sellers throughout the nation. As an expert source he has been written about and featured in The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur magazine, CNN Money, USA Today, CEOWORLD, and Forbes.

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From Employee To Entrepreneur: Becoming Your Own Boss in 2021

November 17th, 2020 Adam Witty Leave a comment

Maybe you’ve dreamed of launching your own business for years but couldn’t summon the nerve – or the capital – to pull it off.

Perhaps 2020 proved disastrous to your career aspirations when the company you worked for downsized or shut down altogether – and out the door you went.

Either way, 2021 could be the time to ask yourself this question: Are you ready to go from employee to entrepreneur?

It’s an easy question to ask, but a more difficult one to answer, says Adam Witty, himself a successful entrepreneur and the ForbesBooks co-author of Authority Marketing: Your Blueprint to Build Thought Leadership That Grows Business, Attracts Opportunity, and Makes Competition Irrelevant.

“Maybe for someone who lost their job this year, it’s an easier call because they aren’t giving up something to make the move,” says Witty, who also is the founder and CEO of Advantage|ForbesBooks (www.advantagefamily.com).

“For them, this might be the perfect opportunity to finally give in to any entrepreneurial urges. But leaving full-time employment with its relative security, regular paycheck, predictable infrastructure and perks is a different matter and requires a certain kind of courage.”

After all, success is not guaranteed. About 20 percent of small businesses fail in their first year, and half succumb by year five, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But for those considering taking the plunge, Witty has advice:

Look before you leap. Starting a business requires a certain amount of risk, but that doesn’t mean you should be foolhardy. “While I agree you have to commit to any endeavor for it to succeed, I’m also pragmatic enough to know that the risk must be balanced.” Witty says. “Have a comfortable safety-net before you jump. Chances are, debt will outweigh income at the beginning. So, for those currently employed, take advantage of the income from your full-time position before you cut ties.”

Consider doing what you already know. For many entrepreneurs, success can be attributed to the fact they started a business in a field they were familiar with because they worked in it or already had expertise in it. “They had seen their industry from the inside and acquired a keen understanding of both its potential and its constraints,” Witty says. “That’s not true for everyone, but in the cases where it is true it definitely can make for a more solid transition, and increase the likelihood of success.”

Be adaptable. Witty says one thing that separates successful businesses from ones that fail is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. “Being adaptable doesn’t mean just introducing a new product to your realm of offerings,” he says. “It requires constant attention to what’s going on in the world, analyzing your competitors, and most importantly, not getting too comfortable at the top of the pyramid. The business cycle is much like a StairMaster – once you get to the top, you have to keep climbing to stay up there.”

Ultimately, though, the only way to truly find out whether a person can succeed as an entrepreneur is to do it, no matter how unsettling that first step might be, Witty says.

“Making the shift from the steady life of a full-time employee to the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship takes smarts, guts and support,” he says. “But you’ll never know if it’s right unless you embrace the risk.”

_________________________________________________________

Adam Witty, co-author with Rusty Shelton of Authority Marketing: Your Blueprint to Build Thought Leadership That Grows Business, Attracts Opportunity, and Makes Competition Irrelevant, is the CEO of Advantage|ForbesBooks (www.advantagefamily.com). Witty started Advantage in 2005 in a spare bedroom of his home. The company helps busy professionals become the authority in their field through publishing and marketing. In 2016, Advantage launched a partnership with Forbes to create ForbesBooks, a business book publisher for top business leaders. Witty is the author of seven books, and is also a sought-after speaker, teacher and consultant on marketing and business growth techniques for entrepreneurs and authors. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily and USA Today, and has appeared on ABC and Fox.

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Out of Asia: Promise from Pandemic of a Manufacturing Renaissance in North America (Part 2)

November 17th, 2020 George Y. Gonzalez and Jesus Alcocer, Haynes and Boone Leave a comment

In their first installment (which you can view here), George Gonzalez and Jesus Alcocer examined the current supply chain against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need for restructuring and underscoring the challenges presented by our overreliance on Chinese manufacturing. The following will focus on how to reshore manufacturing in North America through domestic policy and government support.

Potential Governmental Role in Accelerating Reshoring

Some U.S. firms are already reshoring without any government support. A large-scale reshoring, however, may require the government to subsidize part of the capital expenditure (“capex”) of relocating, as well as the higher cost of manufacturing in the U.S. Other nations have put in place efforts to reshore and reduce their reliance on China for strategically important products. Japan provides a recent example.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a ¥240 billion yen ($2.2 billion) plan to help companies reshore to Japan. The subsidies cover up to two-thirds of investments for major companies, and three quarters for small and medium-sized companies, according to the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry. Abe stated that the plan is targeted at high value-added products for which Japan relies heavily on a single country. The government will also encourage firms to diversify their low value-added production bases to Southeast Asia. The government set apart an additional ¥23.5 billion ($220 million) for this last initiative, as well as ¥3 billion to repatriate active pharmaceutical ingredients. As of early June, only one company, consumer products manufacturer Iris Ohyama, announced it was taking advantage of the program. The company expects the government to supply 75% of its ¥3 billion ($28 million)investment in a factory that will drastically ramp up its production of protective masks in Japan. Once the project is complete, Iris Ohyama calculates its output will increase from 60 to 150 million masks.

Japan has attempted to reduce its dependence on China for close to a decade. Since the early 2000s, Japanese companies have been implementing a “China plus one strategy,” through which they aim to establish manufacturing bases in at least one location outside of China. The supply chain vulnerabilities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, have made officials more explicit advocates of reshoring. Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, for example, told reporters in June that the country had become too reliant on China, after Japanese factories in the auto sectors were forced to temporarily suspend operations in February, following the closure of a substantial portion of Chinese suppliers. Imports into Japan from China nearly halved in February, resulting in a supply shock that affected everything from personal computers to the handover of homes — which were left without toilets and bathtubs.

According to Nikkei, Japan relies on China for about 20% of its parts and materials needs. In 2018, 80% of face masks in Japan were imported, mainly from China, according to the Japan Hygiene Products Industry Association. Likewise, “car parts from China accounted for 36.9% of Japan’s total imports in 2019, while phone handsets from the Asian neighbor accounted for 85.5% of the total import value,” according to the Japanese Finance Ministry. However, data from the World Bank, indicate that Japan may be less vulnerable than the U.S. to a supply shock, especially in regard to electronic products and industrial machinery. In 2018, the U.S. maintained a more significant trade deficit than Japan with China in all sectors, except raw materials, fuels, vegetables, food, minerals, and animal products.

U.S. Reshoring Policy in Process

Similar federal support for U.S. reshoring out of China has been discussed in Washington D.C., but legislation has yet to be drafted. Among the most widely reported ideas is a $25 billion reshoring fund similar to the Japan initiative above. On relative terms, the U.S. initiative would be 10 times larger than the Japanese plan, even though the U.S.’s FDI stock in China is slightly lower than Japan’s ($116.5 billion, and $126 billion, respectively).

The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported earlier this month that there was “widespread discussion underway” for a reshoring fund aimed to “drastically revamp their [(the U.S.’s)] relationship with China,” according to two anonymous administration officials cited by Reuters. The details of the plan are not public yet, but these officials indicated states could be in charge of managing the funds.

While several congressional aides have acknowledged the existence of this plan, no U.S. lawmaker embraced it publicly. In particular, Reuters indicated the issue is unlikely to be addressed in the next COVID-19 fiscal stimulus. Still, other sources suggested that lawmakers hope to include reshoring provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) – a $740 billion bill setting policy for the Pentagon that Congress passes every year. The plan reportedly faces stiff opposition within the administration. One of the sources cited mentioned that pure subsidies are not an option. “Internally, some are questioning why we should be providing funds to companies that have left [the U.S.] in recent years,” the source indicated.

Even if the reported fund does not come to fruition, the government is already taking some steps to promote reshoring. For example, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that gave the U.S. overseas investment agency new powers to help manufacturers in the U. S. The president indicated the order would help “produce everything America needs for ourselves and then export to the world, and that includes medicines.” Others within the administration are considering attracting investment to the U.S. through tax incentives. Larry Kudlow, the Director of the United States National Economic Council, has publicly spoken about using such incentives. Several members of Congress have backed similar proposals. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a bill on May 10 that would “bar the sale of some sensitive goods to China, and raise taxes on U.S. companies’ income from China.”

Other plans have focused on the healthcare sector. Peter Navarro, the NDAA policy coordinator, indicated an order would soon require federal agencies to purchase U.S.-made medical products, and the administration would work to make it easier for pharmaceuticals to operate in the U.S. by deregulating the industry. Similar recommendations have been put forward by lawmakers. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) proposed stringent local content rules for medical products, and subsidies to encourage domestic production of related components. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) also introduced legislation calculated to decrease the U.S. dependence on Chinese pharmaceuticals.

Surveys suggest that the public may be more receptive to measures like this in the wake of the pandemic. An analogy may be drawn to the public’s reaction to the recent $32 billion rescue deal for the airline industry^. The bailout initially faced stiff opposition because the airline industry experienced unusually high profits over the five years leading to 2020 but failed to build a war chest to confront eventualities. Voters, however, became increasingly supportive of the measure as the effects of the pandemic propagated. For example, in a poll conducted by Morning Consult between March 17-20, only 31% of people surveyed approved of the bailout, but close to 51% did so during a poll conducted on March 27-29. Moreover, closer to 86% of voters approved of the $2 trillion COVID-19 rescue package in late March.

Why is Government Support Critical?

The U.S. should consider seeking to reshore critical and advanced manufacturing in the short term for at least four reasons. First, China will likely retain a labor cost advantage for many years. According to Goldman Sachs, the average manufacturing wage in China was close to $750 per month in 2015, while that in the U.S. was slightly higher than $4,000 per month. This computes to a six-seven-fold differential. Wages are not an accurate metric of labor cost, however. How much a worker produces in an hour is as important as how much he or she gets paid during that time. The productivity adjusted wage of a U.S. worker (and a Japanese worker) is close to $40 per hour, while that of a Chinese worker is closer to $20. This gap has been declining at about 1% per year since 2012, driven not by increasing U.S. productivity, but by an upsurge of wages in China.

However, relying on further wage Chinese growth to reduce this labor cost gap is not likely to be a successful strategy. Additionally, the U.S. is also losing ground against other countries, including France and Germany, which reduced their labor cost by 5% and 4% per year with respect to the U.S. Second, while wages are rising in the affluent areas of coastal China, labor is cheaper in the inner provinces. Manufacturers, faced with high costs in Guangzhou and Shanghai, can shift inland to retain a competitive edge.

Third, maintaining manufacturing capacity abroad may prevent the U.S. from developing a robust base of skilled labor. China employed about 113 million people in manufacturing in 2013, while the U.S. employed only 12 million in manufacturing. In addition, China purchased about three times as many robots for production as the U.S. in 2015, further deepening this productive capacity gap. These differences may keep growing, as manufacturing processes become more skill-intensive. Chinese universities have awarded close to 1.2 million engineering degrees per year since 2013, and the number is steadily growing. The U.S., in contrast, has awarded close to 180,000 per year since 2013. Without an appropriate pool of trained workers, lower production costs will not necessarily improve the U.S. productive capacity.

According to consulting and accounting firm Deloitte, 50% of open positions for skilled workers in the U.S. manufacturing industry were unfilled due to a skills gap in 2018. These positions include skilled production workers, supply chain talent, digital talent, engineers, researchers, scientists, software engineers, and operational managers. This shortage is expected to widen from 488,000 jobs left open today to up to 2.4 million in 2028, resulting in a potential opportunity loss of $2.5 trillion in the next 10 years.

Fourth, the longer the U.S. takes to reshore, the more challenging it will be to match China’s manufacturing. A student who practices math problems every day will become more efficient at solving them relative to a student who only practices once a week. If their studying rates remain constant, the gap between them may become so wide that it will be nearly impossible for the second student to catch up. The same concept applies to manufacturing. Because Chinese producers are manufacturing at a higher rate than their U.S. counterparts, they have more opportunities to identify cost-cutting measures and revenue-generating innovations. China’s manufacturing prowess is already hard to replace. It is the sole producer of many electronic components and sits at the center of the supply chain for many others. Moreover, China is becoming a more integral part of the world’s manufacturing machinery, as rising foreign investments in R&D and advanced manufacturing make it difficult for companies to exit the country altogether.

In a now-classic paper, Bruce Henderson described this phenomenon as the experience curve. Based on company data, Henderson concluded that every time a company’s accumulated production doubles, its production cost drops by 20% to 30%. The manufacturer with the highest share, therefore, should be expected to increase its productivity at a faster pace. In the long term, he predicted, only the competitors with the three highest market shares can survive.

If Henderson is correct, then the U.S. should focus on industries where it still retains the upper hand. In particular, the U.S. retains three key potentially durable competitive advantages: the potential to stay at the cutting edge of automation, low energy cost, and the capacity to innovate. Additionally, as explained below, the U.S. also has nearly unfettered access to the manufacturing base of Mexico, where wages are already lower than in China. McKinsey predicts automation will decrease global trade of goods by 10% in 2030. According to McKinsey, only about 18% of global goods trade is now driven by labor-cost differences – a number the firm expects to decrease further since half of the tasks that workers are paid to complete across industries could technically be automated. The company predicts automation will decrease global trade of goods by 10% in 2030. Amid Abe’s reshoring program, some Japanese firms are predicting they could relocate home thanks to shifts in automation.

The U.S. has a sizable advantage with respect to energy costs. The price of natural gas dramatically dropped in North America following an explosion of shale gas production in 2004. Thanks to “hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling…imports of crude oil by the U.S. decreased from 9,213 barrels per day (Kb/d) in 2010 to 7,969 Kb/d in 2017. By 2012, natural gas in North America was six times cheaper than in Asia and three-four times cheaper than in Europe. Continuing to develop North America’s durable competitive advantage with respect to energy cost may be a more efficient and realistic way for the U.S. to bridge its manufacturing cost with China. The contribution of gas and electricity cost to overall cost is 60% as large as the contribution of labor cost to overall cost across industries in China, based on data compiled by BCG. In other words, the U.S. may be able to offset a 10% decline in labor costs in China by decreasing energy prices by less than 20%.

Lastly, the U.S. might seek to enlist its capacity for innovation, ingrained in its world-leading universities, and top-notch corporate research departments. Clay Christiansen, former dean of Harvard Business School, observed that the top companies of one generation rarely retain their leading role in the next generation. His theory of radical innovation explains that newcomers can capture market share in one of two ways. First, they might start by focusing on the needs of less profitable consumers, who are ignored by large players, and use that capital to eventually challenge the incumbent’s dominance of the high-end market. Secondly, companies can aim to focus on markets that are currently not on the radars of incumbents, who are focused on serving and predicting the needs of their current markets. In the same manner, the U.S. can focus on manufacturing emerging technologies, where it can build an advantage from early on while others focus on serving current needs.

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Could COVID Kill Entrepreneurship? How to Make Sure It Doesn’t

November 10th, 2020 Andi Gray Leave a comment

It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has left many existing small businesses struggling, and the continued economic uncertainty threatens to kill the ambitions of entrepreneurs who planned to launch new businesses but now must put their dreams on hold.

“This crisis will end up being much worse for small businesses than the 2008-11 sub-prime mortgage crisis,” says Andi Gray, president of Strategy Leaders (www.strategyleaders.com), a business consulting firm. “That 2008 crisis mostly hit banks, mortgage, insurance, automotive – all of which were primarily big, publicly owned stock companies. The only small business dominant category was the construction sector which was devastated for years.

Today’s crisis hits and potentially harms nearly every type of small business.

“During that 2008-2011 period, for the first time, the number of business starts fell below the number of business failures. In other words, more businesses were killed off than were launched, and many people wondered whether we had killed entrepreneurship itself. It took five years or more for the small business community to recover from that. The COVID-19 pandemic impact is so much larger and deeper.”

And when a small business takes a hit, the country as a whole suffers, she says.

“Small businesses make up 50 percent of the gross-domestic-product and also employ half the workforce,” Gray says. “What happens to them determines what happens to the overall economy. We as a country cannot afford to fail them.” So, what steps should small business owners take to make sure they come out on the other side of the current crisis in good shape? Gray suggests a few questions for them to consider:

How is your online game? If business owners aren’t already thinking of themselves as all-virtual, e-commerce sellers, they need to be, Gray says. “That’s how your customer of today and the future is going to want to buy and receive products and services,” she says. “You may need to update your website. Evaluate how good you are at social media communication and promotion. Rethink how you can get orders, track delivery, and receive payments virtually.”

What’s happened to banking and access to capital? In recessions, banks shut down their credit lines, and reduce capital access if they have any concerns about a customer’s ability to pay down debts on time, Gray says. “This will get worse before it gets better. That means you may wake up one morning to find your business is facing challenges with access to capital,” she says. “To keep your credit lines open and approved, it’s essential that you put in the time and effort to work with your bank.” Without access to the proper amount of capital, she says, your business may not be able to function.

How have employees been affected? Businesses must be prepared for challenges that impact work production, Gray says. She points to a study by Microsoft that showed employees’ brains are measurably more stressed working remotely than in an office. It’s harder for remote workers to process information and they get fatigued more easily. “And that’s just one aspect of what our employees are dealing with as the world around them changes so rapidly and dramatically,” Gray says. Build in as many communication and interaction tools as possible.

Is your supply chain stable? “Get prepared for more disruptions as COVID continues to emerge and reemerge and some vendors fall away,” Gray says. “And with hurricane season followed by winter weather, many poorly funded state and local support structures could struggle.” Look at how your supplies get to you. If you’re part of the supply chain, look at how you deliver supplies to your customers. “Explore alternate shipping solutions and routes – trains, planes, cars, trucks, boats,” Gray says. “Now is the time to investigate all of them. Build-in redundancy.” Staying in business is difficult even without a major crisis, Gray says, as three out of four businesses fail in every 10-year cycle.

“The good news is that small business owners are known for being nimble, flexible, and resourceful,” she says. “Many of them are finding new opportunities by solving problems that didn’t exist, or weren’t priorities, at the start of 2020. If we can buy them some time, they’ll be able to retool, market their new services and products, and keep good people employed.”

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Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders (www.strategyleaders.com), a business consulting firm. Gray’s career started in sales, marketing and new business development at Xerox, American Express and Contel. Gray earned an Executive MBA from Columbia University while conducting research on success and failure drivers for entrepreneurial businesses. Gray writes a weekly column called “Ask Andi” in which she provides practical advice to business owners. She also authors a monthly column in Chauffeur Driven Magazine. Gray is also the co-founder of the networking group BOHCA (Business Owners Hemp and Cannabis Association), where she helps industry-specific owners grow their business through strategic planning.

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Growing Need for Commercial Spaces to Propel Global Windows and Doors Market Size through 2026

November 9th, 2020 Global Market Insights Leave a comment

The window and door market is estimated to record significant growth on account of increasing home improvement and remodeling activities commenced worldwide. Customers are preferring customized windows and doors while remodeling their home interior. In fact, a major section of today’s population is inclining towards customized doors as it provides multiple personalized choices in terms of hardware, material, and color.

Studies reveal that buyers keep natural light among the key interior design features while purchasing a house. Demand for large windows with less frame and sliding glass doors will boost new prospects in the market over the forthcoming years.

Rapid urbanization coupled with surging product commercialization could positively benefit the windows & doors industry. Several private and public organizations are heavily investing in commercial and residential infrastructure development projects, which could play a pivotal part in expanding the urban sector.

In terms of material, windows and doors are generally made up of metal, wood, uPVC, and others. The other segment includes material like glass and carbon-fiber. Glass has managed to control a prominent portion of the business share owing to growing inclination towards outdoor living. There are multiple types of glasses available for glass windows with each type offering some peculiar features like the ability to enhance the beauty, decor & design of homes, or provide excellent resistance to wear and tear.

Sliding glass doors are considered a secure, energy-efficient, and safe alternative, making it popular among consumers that are planning to conduct a kitchen renovation or living room extension. Whereas, tempered glass is heavily used in commercial spaces like offices due to its remarkable durability.

As for metal doors and windows, they usually go well with brick exterior buildings & homes and modern grey or white rendered walls. Benefits like superior efficiency, durability, and excellent strength make metal a vital option for window frames and door by manufacturers.

Based on applications, the windows and doors market is mainly divided into residential and commercial. The commercial application segment is projected to record noteworthy gains on account of the proliferating number of commercial infrastructure developmental activities. Rampant growth in the construction sector could drive the demand for windows and doors over the forthcoming years.

Surging population growth and rising urbanization across developing economies have sprouted a need for commercial spaces like hospitals, offices, hotels, and shopping malls. Developments like these could play a crucial role in enhancing the window and door market outlook.

Meanwhile, rising sales in the real estate sector, especially across developing economies, coupled with proliferating demand for single-family homes could accelerate the adoption of windows and doors across the residential sector.

Source: Global Market Insights, Inc.

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Cities With the Most Manufacturing Jobs

November 8th, 2020 Smartest Dollar Leave a comment

Since its peak in 1979, manufacturing employment in the U.S. has been on the decline, accelerating sharply around the turn of the century. Despite modest gains since 2010, the number of manufacturing jobs remains far below previous levels. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), manufacturing accounted for more than 13 percent of the U.S. nonfarm workforce in 1999, or 17.3 million jobs. As of 2019, just 8.5 percent of workers were employed in the manufacturing sector, totaling less than 13 million jobs.

Interestingly, at the same time that manufacturing jobs have moved overseas, manufacturing output—measured as the value of goods and services produced in the U.S.—has increased steadily. In fact, the BLS’s index of labor productivity for manufacturing is 2.5 times greater than it was in 1987 (the earliest year for which the data is available) due to advances in machinery, increased worker skill, and improved industrial processes.

Although manufacturing output has grown overall, the growth has not been equal among manufacturing subsectors. Between 1999 and 2019, overall durable goods manufacturing output increased by 36.4 percent. While a number of durable goods manufacturing sectors decreased in output, computer and electronic products production more than tripled. In contrast, overall nondurable manufacturing output fell by 3.6 percent over the last 20 years, with the steepest declines observed in apparel and textiles.

The share of employment in manufacturing varies significantly across cities and states—some parts of the country depend much more on manufacturing work than others. The change in manufacturing jobs over the last two decades also differs substantially on a geographic basis. Even states with the largest share of employment in manufacturing today have lost large numbers of manufacturing jobs. While Indiana and Wisconsin have 17.1 and 16.2 percent of their employment in manufacturing, respectively, they have each lost more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs since 1999.

To find the metropolitan areas with the most manufacturing jobs, researchers at Smartest Dollar used employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The researchers ranked metro areas according to the share of workers employed in manufacturing. Researchers also looked at the percentage change in total manufacturing jobs since 1999 and the total number of manufacturing jobs in 2019 and 1999.

To improve relevance, only metropolitan areas with at least 100,000 people were included in the analysis. Additionally, metro areas were grouped into the following cohorts based on population size: small metros have 100,000–349,999 residents; midsize metros have 350,000–999,999 residents; and large metros have 1,000,000 or more residents.

Here are the metropolitan areas with the largest share of workers employed in manufacturing.

Metro	Rank	Share of employment in manufacturing	Change in total manufacturing jobs since 1999	Total manufacturing jobs 2019	Total manufacturing jobs 1999
Grand Rapids-Kentwood, MI	1	21.0%	-9.0% (11,800 total jobs lost)	119,000	130,800
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	2	15.1%	-26.6% (62,700 total jobs lost)	173,000	235,700
Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI	3	13.7%	-28.4% (47,500 total jobs lost)	120,000	167,500
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI	4	12.6%	-30.6% (113,900 total jobs lost)	257,900	371,800
Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN	5	12.3%	-12.7% (12,100 total jobs lost)	83,000	95,100
Cleveland-Elyria, OH	6	11.4%	-37.2% (73,000 total jobs lost)	123,500	196,500
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN	7	10.8%	-18.8% (27,900 total jobs lost)	120,600	148,500
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	8	10.6%	-8.9% (12,700 total jobs lost)	129,300	142,000
Rochester, NY	9	10.5%	-47.5% (51,100 total jobs lost)	56,500	107,600
Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT	10	10.4%	-21.0% (16,100 total jobs lost)	60,400	76,500
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	11	9.9%	-17.0% (41,200 total jobs lost)	200,700	241,900
Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY	12	9.3%	-37.1% (30,900 total jobs lost)	52,400	83,300
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC	13	9.0%	-29.3% (46,000 total jobs lost)	111,200	157,200
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI	14	8.8%	-35.3% (229,100 total jobs lost)	419,500	648,600
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	15	8.8%	-19.1% (43,700 total jobs lost)	184,700	228,400
United States	–	8.5%	-25.9% (4,482,000 total jobs lost)	12,840,000	17,322,000

For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on Smartest Dollar’s website: https://smartestdollar.com/research/cities-with-the-most-manufacturing-jobs-2020

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Dubai Customs Earns Second PMO Award for 2020

November 2nd, 2020 GT Staff Leave a comment

The world’s largest award by the PMO Global Alliance selected Dubai Customs for the coveted award recognizing them as the “Best PMO in the World” for 2020, right after being named Asia-Pacific PMO of the Year in August. The PMO Award is known as the largest of its kind globally and highlights exemplary practices in international standards and exceptional project management for economic development-focused projects. This year’s annual ceremony was conducted virtually on October 29th and featured delegates from across the globe.

“We have implemented comprehensive development plans that integrate global project management best practices based on AI applications and advanced technologies run by skilled and highly motivated teams,” HE Sultan bin Sulayem, DP World Group Chairman & CEO and Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation said. “Inspired by the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, we follow an innovative project management methodology that seeks not only to promote sustainable development but also turn challenges into opportunities.”

Dubai Customs maintained its competitive position against private companies and government departments with a total of 125 projects worth AED 350 million implemented between 2007 and 2019 paired with a business-minded approach. These and the implemented technology-focused integrations continue to support economic vitality and development support.

Juma Al Ghaith, Executive Director of Customs Development Division at Dubai Customs added:

“As part of its digital transformation strategy, Dubai Customs’ future projects are driven by fourth industrial revolution technologies like AI and blockchain. Our projects seek to better facilitate trade operations, automate customs procedures and reduce cost on clients. Projects managed by Dubai Customs’ Development Division have reduced operational costs of clients by AED898 million, generated revenues of AED384 million, reduced internal operational costs by AED561 million, and safeguarded AED25 billion worth of customs revenue.

Dubai Customs has achieved a 100% digital transformation, which has enabled us to raise the happiness levels of clients to 98%. Key projects that have made this possible include the Mirsal System developed in house by Dubai Customs. The project was praised by the World Customs Organization as one of the world’s leading customs systems and adopted by the Federal Customs Authority to create a unified customs system integrating all local customs departments in the UAE.”

Source: Dubai Customs

The Best-Paying Cities for Millennials

Metro

Rank

Share of employment in manufacturing

Change in total manufacturing jobs since 1999

Total manufacturing jobs 2019

Total manufacturing jobs 1999

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