L.A.-Long Beach Ranked No. 1 in U.S. Manufacturing
The Los Angeles area--perhaps better known for its vast and glitzy entertainment industry--is also the nation’s No. 1 metropolitan area for manufacturing, according to a new survey.
The Los Angeles-Long Beach area nudged Chicago out of the top spot in the 1985 survey by Sales and Marketing Management magazine. The ranking is based on the dollar value of manufacturing shipments. Chicago’s Cook County, however, still leads Los Angeles County in the number of manufacturing-related jobs and factories.
The biggest industries in Los Angeles County, according to the magazine, are petroleum refining, aircraft manufacturing, electronics equipment (including computers), communications equipment and guided missiles and spacecraft.
The survey of industrial and commercial buying power showed that the Los Angeles-Long Beach area shipped $74.9 billion in goods in 1985, $3.2 billion more than Chicago’s $71.7 billion and nearly $15 billion more than third-place Detroit, which shipped $60.3 billion.
Philadelphia remained in fourth place. It was followed, as in 1984, by New York, Boston and Houston. San Jose moved into eighth place from 10th. Newark, N.J., stayed in ninth place, while the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area made the top 10 for the first time.
St. Louis, which slipped to 13th place from eighth, was the only metropolitan area not to make the top 10 list again.
When it comes to county-by-county rankings, Chicago’s Cook County was No. 1 in the number of factory-employed workers and factories, with 618,542 workers in 5,194 factories. Los Angeles County was second with 606,440 workers at 4,566 factories.
Four other California counties ranked in the top 50 counties in manufacturing activity:
- Orange County was No. 13, with $15 billion in shipments and 853 manufacturing establishments employing 141,928.
- Santa Clara County, which includes high-tech Silicon Valley, was No. 5, with $29.5 billion in shipments and 819 factories employing 226,497 workers.
- Contra Costa County was No. 41 with $8.7 billion in shipments and 26,645 workers at 195 factories.
- San Diego was No. 48 with $7.6 billion in shipments and 78,077 employees at 466 factories.
LEADING AREAS OF MANUFACTURING
1985 Ship- 1985 Market 1984 ments Rank Area Rank $in bil. 1 Los Angeles/ Long Beach 2 $74.9 2 Chicago 1 71.7 3 Detroit 3 60.3 4 Philadelphia 4 53.3 5 New York 5 44.9 6 Boston area 6 40.0 7 Houston 7 35.2 8 San Jose 10 29.5 9 Newark, N.J. 9 24.7 10 Minneapolis/St. Paul 11 24.4 11 Cincinnati 14 21.1 12 Cleveland 13 20.9 13 St. Louis 8 20.8 14 Beaumont/Port Arthur, Tex. 12 19.8 15 Dallas 19 18.0 16 Nassau/Suffolk, N.Y. 21 17.9 17 Milwaukee 15 17.8 18 Oakland 29 17.3 19 Bergen/Passaic, N.J. 22 17.0 20 Middlesex area, N.J. 25 15.8
Source: Sales and Marketing Management magazine
