Census Bureau reports upswing in Puerto Rico manufacturing shipments

Puerto Rico reported $80.2 billion in manufacturers' shipments in 2007, up from $58.6 billion in 2002, according to results from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 Economic Census.

In 2007, Puerto Rico had 2,151 manufacturing establishments, employing 110,691 people and accounting for $3.5 billion in annual payroll. This compares with 2,195 such establishments in 2002, which employed 126,707 people and had $3.1 billion in annual payroll.

The economic census, which profiles Puerto Rico's economy every five years, includes statistics for Puerto Rico manufacturing by metropolitan statistical areas and municipios (county equivalents). The data files provide information on the number of employees and production workers, value added by manufacture, cost of materials, value of shipments and capital expenditures.

Other findings:

• In 2007, chemical manufacturing continued to lead all manufacturing subsectors in value of shipments, reporting $52.1 billion (65 percent of total manufacturing shipments), compared with $39.8 billion (68 percent of total shipments) in 2002.
• Miscellaneous manufacturing was the second leading subsector with $7.4 billion in shipments in 2007, compared with $3.2 billion in 2002. Medical equipment and supplies manufacturing led miscellaneous manufacturing with $7.3 billion in shipments in 2007.
• In 2007, the manufacturing sector reported value added of $68.6 billion, cost of materials of $12.5 billion, and capital expenditures of $4.9 billion. In 2002, value added was $45.6 billion, cost of materials was $13.4 billion, and capital expenditures were $3.7 billion.
• The San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo metropolitan statistical area accounted for $64.2 billion of the island's manufacturing shipments in 2007. The same metropolitan statistical area led the manufacturing sector in 2002, with shipments of $44.1 billion.

These data for Puerto Rico and other U.S. Island Areas are available only through the Census Bureau's American FactFinder, an online tool that allows users to access, filter, manipulate and extract data. Release dates for other islands were March 2009 (Northern Mariana Islands), May 2009 (Guam), July 2009 (U.S. Virgin Islands) and August 2009 (American Samoa). Data for the Puerto Rico geographic area series and the Puerto Rico construction sector will be released in September and December 2010, respectively.

More information about the 2007 Economic Census of Island Areas can be found at http://www.census.gov/econ/islandareas/index.html. Click the "How the Data are Collected" tab for information on confidentiality protection, non-sampling error and definitions.