Next time you grab a beer don’t feel guilty, you’re helping the economy!
Take our survey on beer use at the end of the article!
Wednesday, May 22, the Beer Institute and the National Beer Wholesalers Association released their Beer Serves America economic report on the nation’s beer industry just ahead of Memorial Day, which marks one of the top beer-selling holidays of the year and the start of the summer beer-selling season.
According to the study, the U.S. beer industry supports more than 2.1 million local jobs in a wide range of industries, including farming, manufacturing, construction, and transportation in every community across the country.
“For every job in a brewery, another 31 jobs are created in other industries.”
The Beer Institute says America’s beer industry contributes more than $328 billion to the economy with 7,000 active breweries and over 3,000 distributors. Brewers and beer distributors employ more than 200,000 people.
“Beer is more than America’s most popular alcohol beverage. The beer industry is vital to the United States, generating more than 2.1 million jobs and contributing $328 billion to the American economy,” said Jim McGreevy, President and CEO of the Beer Institute. “Beer Serves America demonstrates how brewers, beer importers and beer industry suppliers are creating jobs, providing wages and benefits to working Americans and supporting the economy in every state and every congressional district.”
Fast facts from the Beer Serves America report:
- Brewers and beer importers directly employ nearly 70,000 Americans. Large and mid-sized brewers and beer importers provide about 58 percent of brewing jobs.
- The number of distributor jobs has increased by more than 19 percent in the last decade, to nearly 141,600.
- Overall, the beer industry contributes about $328.4 billion in economic output which is equal to about 1.6 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
- Suppliers to the brewing industry – enterprises that manufacture bottles and cans, cardboard case boxes, brewing equipment or marketing displays – generate nearly $102.0 billion in economic activity and are responsible for almost 436,650 jobs alone.
How did they do it?
The Beer Serves America study was compiled by the independent economics firm John Dunham & Associates. Using data collected directly from private companies, Infogroup, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
