The U.S. supply chain is generally recognized as an integral part of the American economy. From Intel’s semiconductors to Microsoft’s enterprise software, the supply chain builds the goods and services that businesses need. But for all of its importance, no one has identified what industries comprise the U.S. supply chain economy, quantified the number and quality of jobs it contains, or assessed how much it matters for innovation. We attempted to answer these questions by creating a novel categorization of the U.S. economy that reveals new ways to drive American growth and innovation.
The Supply Chain Economy and the Future of Good Jobs in America
The U.S. supply chain contains 37% of all jobs, employing 44 million people.
March 09, 2018
Richard Leeney/Hayon Thapaliya/Getty Images
Summary.
The U.S. supply chain economy represents the industries that sell to businesses and the government, as opposed to business-to-consumer (B2C) industries that sell for personal consumption. The U.S. supply chain contains 37% of all jobs, employing 44 million people. These jobs have significantly higher than average wages, and account for much of the innovative activity in the economy. The intensity of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) jobs, a proxy for innovation potential, is almost 5 times higher in the supply chain economy than in the B2C economy. Patenting is also highly concentrated in supply chain industries. Only 10% of employment in the economy is in manufacturing, and 90% is in services. And, contrary to the conventional wisdom, these supply chain services jobs are well-paying and growing.