Innovation Alliance Blog Post: More Evidence That Patents Drive U.S. Innovation, Job Creation and Economic Growth
There is new data out this week highlighting the importance of patents and intellectual property intensive manufacturing industries in driving U.S. innovation, job creation and economic growth. A report produced by ndp|analytics, a leading economic research firm, shows that innovative industries in our country owe much of their success to economic returns resulting from their high levels of R&D or intellectual capital investment.
This report comes during a key time in the ongoing debate taking place in congress on how to improve our patent system that is so vital to our economy. This report contains exactly the kind of hard research and data needed to inform this debate.
Key findings in the report include:
- IP-intensive manufacturing industries invest more than 12 times in R&D per employee than non-IP-intensive manufacturing industries ($30,000 compared to $2,500 per employee annually).
- IP-intensive manufacturing industries added more jobs during the most recent economic recovery period while non-IP-intensive manufacturing industries cut more jobs during the economic downturn.
- IP-intensive manufacturing industries pay 50% higher wages than non-IP-intensive manufacturing industries ($60,000 compared to $40,000 per employee annually).
- While IP-intensive manufacturing industries employ nearly 30% of American manufacturing workers, they account for nearly 50% of gross output of manufacturing industries. Gross output per employee in IP-intensive manufacturing industries is more than two times that of their counterparts in non-IP-intensive manufacturing industries ($600,000 compared to $270,000 per employee annually).
- Net economic contribution (gross sales minus intermediate products or value added) per employee in IP-intensive manufacturing industries is nearly two times that of their counterparts in non-IP-intensive manufacturing industries ($250,000 compared to $130,000 per employee annually).
- Annual exports per employee in IP-intensive manufacturing industries are 3.5 times greater than exports per employee in non-IP-intensive manufacturing industries ($130,000 compared to $40,000 per employee annually).
The full ndp|analytics report can be read here.