On Monday, April 4, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker traveled to Brooklyn to learn about the revival of the local manufacturing industry.  Secretary Pritzker visited Industry City, an innovative manufacturing district in Brooklyn, to meet with local entrepreneurs and hear about what it is like to do business in New York’s fastest growing borough.  Built during the industrial boom of the early 20^th century, Industry City’s story is intertwined with the history of manufacturing in Brooklyn. While the complex suffered major setbacks as a result of the exodus of manufacturers in Brooklyn in the post-war years, Industry City was recently re-developed as part of the revitalization of the industry in the borough. The complex houses a dynamic manufacturing community, including:

• Time Inc.’s “theDrive,” the media company’s new editorial platform dedicated to cars;
• End’s Meat, a packaged meat products purveyor;
• Aerobo, a drone service provider;
•  And Alexandra Ferguson, a home décor shop on Etsy.  

These companies are indicative of the resurgence of specialty manufacturing in Brooklyn, in the areas of craft food and beverage, design, and fashion. These three areas alone account for more than two-thirds of manufacturing sector employment in Brooklyn. 

In addition to touring Industry City, Secretary Pritzker participated in a roundtable hosted by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce to learn more about the unique opportunities and challenges in urban manufacturing. In Brooklyn specifically, the manufacturers are relying on skilled workers to produce specialized, niche, and typically higher-value products, upending the traditional view of low-skill manufacturing jobs. Secretary Pritzker discussed the Department’s role as “America’s Innovation Agency,” and the Administration’s commitment to supporting America’s manufacturers.

For the first time since the 1990s, the number of American factories is on the rise. Manufacturing jobs have risen dramatically since the recession, growing by more than 830,000 jobs over the past six years. And manufacturing companies are advertising more than 300,000 unfilled jobs.  

One important legacy of the Obama Administration will be the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, a bold initiative undertaken to maintain America’s leadership and competitiveness in the manufacturing sector. NNMI was born from the idea that working together, the private sector, academia, nonprofits, and the private sector could create and produce cutting-edge technology more effectively than any one of them alone. In 2014 the Department of Commerce was chosen to lead the network function for the NNMI, and has since delivered the first strategic plan for the group of advanced manufacturing institutes. There are now eight manufacturing institutes up-and-running, each of them started with federal seed money that has been matched by non-federal funds.

While today’s manufacturers look very different than the factories of the past, America’s trade agreements have not kept pace. The strength of America’s manufacturers depends on their ability to export.  That is why the Obama Administration is pursuing modern, fair trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which will give U.S. companies greater access to the Asia-Pacific, the fastest growing region in the world. TPP will not only promote American values and raise the standards for doing business worldwide; it will also benefit workers, manufacturers and consumers in Brooklyn and throughout the United States.