A Few Fast Facts on... Plastics and the Economy

• The plastics industry the third largest manufacturing industry in the United States, providing significantly to the nation's economy.
• The U.S. plastics industry employs more than 1.1 million workers.
• The U.S. plastics industry creates $379 billion in annual shipments.
• There are nearly 18,500 plastics facilities in the United States.
• The U.S. plastics industry had a $10.9-billion trade surplus in 2007.
• The plastics industry has a presence in every state.
• Since 1980, U.S. plastics industry shipments have grown 3.4 percent per year.
• Over the past 26 years, productivity in plastics manufacturing has grown 2.3 percent per year, which is faster than productivity growth for manufacturuing as a whole.

The above information came from the SPI Plastics Data Source, which also includes individual state data