St. Paul – Respondents to the annual Minnesota Manufacturing Business Conditions Survey, conducted by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, reported a cautiously optimistic outlook in their business indicators for 2024 compared to how their businesses performed against those indicators in 2023.

Conducted between November and December, the random sample survey of Minnesota manufacturers asked respondents to rate the outlook for their business in 2024 compared to performance in 2023 in terms of number of orders, product/service production level, employment level, labor availability, investment in plant/equipment, selling prices, profits, productivity and exports.

Comparing their 2023 performance to 2022, manufacturers experienced declining or unchanged conditions with the exception of selling prices and investment. For 2024, respondents indicated they expect to see modest expansion in profits, number of orders, productivity and product/service production levels. Labor availability remains a concern, although the outlook shows improvement compared to their previous year's performance. Expectations for employment levels and exports in 2024 are slightly higher, and the outlook for selling prices, while still strong, fell over the year.

"Last fall, DEED launched Drive for Five, a major new initiative to prepare more Minnesotans for high-demand jobs in five occupational categories, including manufacturing," said DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek. "We also provide grant support to manufacturers for numerous job skills training partnership programs – including the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership, Job Training Incentive Program and Automation Training Incentive Program – which help ensure new and current workers have the necessary skills for new and emerging manufacturing and operations technology."

The significant changes for respondents' outlook for 2024 compared to actual indicators for 2023 include:

• 77% expect profits to be the same or higher in 2024, compared to 48% in 2023;
• 71% expect number of orders to be same or higher in 2024, compared to 46% in 2023;
• 83% expect product/service production levels to be the same or higher in 2024, compared to 69% in 2023; and
• 86% expect productivity to be the same or higher in 2024, compared to 76% in 2023.

Manufacturing accounted for $53.7 billion or 12% of the state's gross domestic product and provided more than 323,000 jobs or 11.3% of statewide employment in 2022. Workers took home $24.9 billion in wages from Minnesota manufacturing jobs in 2022, the second-largest total payroll among private sector industries. Average annual wages for workers in manufacturing are $76,491, 10% higher than across all industries in Minnesota.

The full survey and methodology can be found on DEED's Manufacturing Business Conditions Survey page.