Today's Small and Medium Manufacturers: Powerful, Flexible and the Lifeblood of Their Communities

Small and medium manufacturers comprise one of the most vital sectors of our economy. Medium manufacturers are defined as those with 2,000 or fewer employees; small manufacturers have 500 or fewer. Such small employers are an integral part of the economy. They account for about half of private-sector output, employ more than half of private-sector workers and provide about three-fourths of net new jobs each year. Small and medium manufacturers comprise about 95 percent of all manufacturing firms and employ about half of all manufacturing employees. They account for 37 percent of all manufacturing receipts—more than $1 trillion a year, pay their workers 20 percent more than employees in other types of small business; and export increasingly more each year. The number of Small and medium manufacturers that export more than 10 percent of their sales tripled over the past decade.