Illinois Manufacturing Plants Have Highest Average Employment

According to the 2008 Great Lakes Manufacturing survey of 431 manufacturing facilities conducted by the Manufacturing Performance Institute, Illinois plants have the highest average employee count at 363.

By Plant Engineering Staff October 9, 2008

According to the 2008 Great Lakes Manufacturing survey of 431 manufacturing facilities conducted by the Manufacturing Performance Institute, Illinois plants have the highest average employee count of 363 (including all staff). The average employee count among the Great Lakes manufacturers is 240, which included Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The report includes several interesting facts about all the states surveyed, but some of the facts relevant to Illinois were—Illinois leads all Great Lakes states in the percentage of plants with 100% union representation at 19%, Illinois is second in average salary for production workers at $16.46, Illinois leads in the percent of formal employee training programs at 68.2% and Illinois leads in percent of plants that provide education reimbursements at 100%.

The report was not all good news for Illinois. The report showed that Illinois ranks last in the percentage of plants that give employees 40 or more hours of training at 4.6% andRanks last in the percentage of plants that offer employee-ownership options at 4.6%.