U.S. Plastics Industry Shipments and Jobs Thrived

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The total number of employments and value of shipments by the U.S. plastics industry surged higher significantly during 2017. This was declared by Perc Pineda, chief economist with the Plastics Industry Association (PIA).

The U.S plastic firms offered employment to nearly 989,000 people in 2017, higher from the prior year by2.4%. The job growth in the U.S. plastics market also outpaced that of U.S. manufacturing segment during the year. According to PIA, the plastics industry jobs recorded a growth of 1.6%, as compared with manufacturing jobs which grew only by 0.9%. Over the past decade, plastics jobs declined only 1.3% as against the 1.7% decline registered by U.S. manufacturing jobs.

The state of California offered most number of plastics jobs during the year. The other leading states were Ohio, Texas, Michigan and Indiana. Indiana led the country in terms of plastics jobs concentration.

The total U.S. plastics industry shipments amounted to $432.3 billion, significantly higher by almost 7% when matched with the prior year. Texas topped among various U.S. states in terms of value of plastic shipments in 2017, followed by Ohio, California, Michigan and Pennsylvania, added Pineda.

The number of operating facilities under the U.S. plastics industry declined slightly by less than 1% to 12,950 in 2017. Also, the wages in U.S. plastics industry reported year-on-year growth of nearly 4% in 2017.

Looking ahead, the U.S. plastics industry is likely to see a positive year in 2019, despite challenges due to global economic growth slowdown.