
State of Urban Manufacturing National Report
UMA conceived of the State of Urban Manufacturing study to help fill information gaps in our understanding of the rise in small-batch manufacturing over the past decade and the role smaller-scale producers play in their local economies. Its goal was to give our stakeholders information they can use to make strategic decisions that can nurture this entrepreneurial sector.
Starting in 2017, UMA surveyed hundreds of manufacturers in six cities. We asked about each business’s size, workforce, and growth trajectory, as well as the challenges and opportunities each faced.
This 2019 National Report compiles the themes that repeated across cities and which may serve as the basis for national-level advocacy and action planning in the future. It is organized into four sections: (1) A fuller description of our approach to (and the lessons learned from) collecting, analyzing, and sharing this unique data set; (2) Key descriptive statistics of our six-city data set (3) A summary of common themes and recommendations for small-scale manufacturing gleaned from the data; and (4) Potential directions for additional analysis of these data as well as future research.
While this research was a snapshot in time, it was a foundational report for UMA—uncovering baseline issues that communities (manufacturers, intermediaries, and workers) are facing and enabling UMA to create programs, resources, and approaches to support them.