NJEDA, NJMEP announce manufacturing resource guide program

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The New Jersey Economic Development Authority and the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program are expanding the Manufacturing Resource Guide through a pilot program.

The initiative, approved Tuesday, builds upon NJMEP’s current Educational Resource Directory and seeks to provide additional resources and information to foster manufacturing companies’ growth.

The program will also make ERD documents easier to access, and both organizations will work together to distribute the updated guide.During the pilot period, the NJEDA and NJMEP will solicit stakeholder feedback through a roundtable discussion and survey of users who have downloaded the guide.

“Manufacturing is a high-wage, high-value industry that has the potential to drive long-term, sustainable growth in communities around New Jersey,” NJMEP President John Kennedy said. “Unfortunately, growth in this industry has slowed in recent years because companies, parents, and students do not know about programs that are available to help them overcome challenges. Our collaboration with the NJEDA will help to broaden our educational resource directory into a full Manufacturing Resource Guide and make it easier to access and search so that companies, parents, and students can take advantage of the full range of resources available in New Jersey to help them grow.”

New Jersey’s manufacturing industry produces more than $31 billion in economic output every year and employs more than 160,000 New Jersey workers.

The industry is one of eight focus sectors identified in Gov. Phil Murphy’s economic plan. It has faced increasing barriers to growth as an aging workforce and a shortage of young workers shrinks the number of qualified employees available to manufacturing companies and a growing skills gap slows productivity in the modern, technologically demanding field.