The pharmaceutical industry has added thousands of jobs and brought billions of dollars' worth of new wealth into New York State in recent years, a Census Bureau report shows.
Drug companies employed more than 25,700 in New York in 2000, an increase of more than 7,000 jobs from three years earlier, according to the Census Bureau's 2000 Annual Survey of Manufactures. Annual payroll at those companies rose during the period to $972 million, an increase of 24 percent, and capital investment in the state rose by a similar percentage to $5.8 billion.
The Census Bureau report showed that "value added" by pharmaceutical companies in New York more than doubled, rising above $9 billion in 2000. That figure, the wealth created by manufacturing activity, represents the total value of shipments minus costs such as materials, supplies and fuel. The industry's employment and wealth creation in New York showed growth rates more than double those nationwide.
The report also showed that overall capital investment by New York State manufacturers of all types rose sharply in 2000, although by other indicators the state lagged the nation.
Manufacturers made $5.4 billion in capital expenditures in the Empire State in 2000, a 12.7 percent increase from the previous year, according to the report. Nationwide, industrial capital investment rose just over 3 percent to $155 billion.
Major investments included those by companies that manufacture computer and electronic products, $867 million; transportation equipment, $433 million; fabricated metal products, $350 million; dairy and other foods, $327 million; plastics and rubber products, $251 million; glass, clay and other nonmetallic mineral products, $220 million; printed products, $193 million; and paper products, $150 million.
New York lost 40,000 manufacturing jobs from 1997 through 2000, according to the report. More than half of those job losses were in the apparel industry, concentrated in New York City, which has been hit hard by lower-cost international competition. New York's losses in the industry were lower proportionally than those nationwide.
Manufacturers' payroll topped $27 billion statewide, according to the report. Value added by manufacturing companies was more than $85 billion.
The Public Policy Institute has prepared a table showing the change in manufacturing employment, payroll and other key indicators for New York and the nation from 1997 to 2000.