Craft brewing industry growth continues

One day after the Boulder-based Brewers Association announced mid-year growth figures for the craft-beer industry, the Washington-based Beer Institute unveiled economic-impact figures for the beer industry as a whole both on national and local levels. And about 5,825 more people work in breweries than in 2012.

Another 1,755 craft breweries were in planning stages at the mid-point of 2015.

The group’s new numbers suggest the growth in demand for craft beers isn’t slowing down.

Nationally, the report touts the industry as accounting for $252.6 billion in economic output and $48.5 billion in tax revenue.

The alcoholic beverage generated $10.8 billion in economic activity in the state last year, ranking fifth nationwide. Those jobs paid $4,380,579,900 in total wages in 2014. U.S. production of craft beer has more than doubled since 2011.

Findings were further explained in an executive summary, which is available on the Beer Serves America website. “Beer is more than our nation’s favorite adult drink – it is a powerhouse in job creation, commercial activity and tax revenue”.

NBWA President & CEO Craig Purser said, “As independent businesses, America’s licensed beer distributors are proud to provide more than 130,000 direct jobs with solid wages and great benefits to employees at more than 3,300 facilities, located in every state and congressional district across the country”.

“The American beer industry directly and indirectly employs more than 1.75 million Americans in more than a dozen different categories – including farming and package manufacturing – whose jobs are just as dependent on a thriving beer trade as those workers directly involved in the brewing, distributing and sale of beer”, the “Beer Serves America” study states. The latest data will be used to remind lawmakers “what an important economic contributor beer is to the economy”, Purser said.