GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt opened a new GE refrigerator plant in Louisville, Kentucky, yesterday. The factory, which employs 600 workers, is part of a $1 billion drive to manufacture new appliances in the U.S. and create 1,300 jobs. “If we develop a good product, if we are dedicated to manufacturing, if we have a great team working together, we can build a great business and we can win,” Immelt said. “If business does well, everyone does well.”
The Kentucky success story is an example of how GE works in America. GE, an American company with a 140-year history, employs 133,000 workers in the United States. Each 10 GE employees support 52 additional jobs somewhere in the country, according to economic impact research commissioned by GE and released today. How many jobs is that? More than the population of five U.S. states, including Wyoming, Alaska, and Vermont – some 830,000 jobs in total. The same study found that GE, its employees, and business partners add $166 billion per year to the U.S. economy. That’s more than three times the payroll for the entire U.S. food manufacturing industry, which stands at $51 billion.
But GE’s reach goes deeper than economic data. The study estimated that GE employees also gave $74 million to charitable groups. In total, the GE family donated over $259 million and workers volunteered 325,000 hours of their time.
GE provided the data for the research, but hired TrippUmbach, an independent third party, to calculate the company’s economic impact. We’ve created an infographic to illustrate the numbers. Take a look.
