The State of Manufacturing in Minnesota 2011


This afternoon I attended Enterprise Minnesota’s release event for its third annual “State of Manufacturing” survey.  Each year, Enterprise Minnesota completes the State of Manufacturing survey to ask the state’s manufacturing executives for their economic outlook and top issues. Over two weeks in January, 2011, Alexandria, Va.-based Public Opinion Strategies conducted phone interviews with 400 manufacturing executives, representing a geographically proportional cross-section of Minnesota. The poll has an error rate of +/- 4 percent. The research was complemented by 17 focus groups of manufacturing executives conducted throughout Minnesota.


This year’s survey results yielded some interesting results:


1. Overall, the executives surveyed believe that the worst of the economic troubles is behind us and that brighter days are on the horizon.


2. Their biggest concerns (not surprisingly, in my opinion) are:  health care costs, the impact of the 2010 health care reform law, regulation and taxes.  Access to credit was No. 5.


3. Of particular interest to an attorney like me, a minority of business owners have thought about a succession plan. 


To read more about the survey, please visit www.stateofmanufacturing.com.