FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                           WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2003

                                

Patricia Buscher                                                  CB03-20
Public Information Office                                             
(301) 763-3030/457-3670 (fax)
(301) 457-1037 (TDD)
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           California Led Nation in Manufacturing Jobs in 2001

  About 1.8 million people were employed in manufacturing jobs in
California in 2001, more than in any other state, and manufacturing
workers in that state earned $75 billion, the Commerce Department's
Census Bureau reported today.

  Census Bureau analyst Mendel Gayle said California's manufacturing
sector employed 1.2 million production workers who clocked 2.3 billion
hours on the job and earned $34 billion in wages, making California's
the largest payroll of all states in the nation's manufacturing sector.
 
  Texas and Ohio followed, with 950,000 and 924,000 manufacturing jobs,
respectively. Both states showed payrolls of $36 billion. They reported
1.3 billion and 1.4 billion in production- worker hours, respectively.
Ohio production workers, however, had higher wages they earned $23.4
billion compared with Texas' $19.5 billion.

  The Internet tables from the 2001 Annual Survey of Manufactures,
Geographic Area Statistics provide data on number of employees, production
workers, value added, cost of materials, total value of shipments and total
capital expenditures for manufacturing establishments in the nation and 
states from 1997 to 2001. The tables include similar data for manufacturing
industry groups within each state, such as food, apparel, lumber, 
chemicals, computers and transportation equipment.

  The findings are based on a sample of 52,000 manufacturing
establishments and are subject to sampling variability and nonsampling
error. Sources of nonsampling error include errors of response,
nonreporting and coverage. Measures of sampling variability, presented
as relative standard errors, are shown in the tables.