Our economic agencies are bullish on our region’s potential to be a major manufacturing hub and recent data indicates the boldness of that ambition and the hurdles of our underperforming economy.

New data compiled by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG) looked for rising stars in the nation’s largely dormant manufacturing sector.  EIG mapped the entire nation to identify how many new local manufacturing firms have been started in the past five years and ranked every labor market according to the number of firms five years and younger per 10,000 population. 

In the ranking of the 50 largest metros, Memphis was next to last.   

That ranking was produced by Portland, Oregon, economist Joe Cortright, using the EIG data.  The only metro our region bested was Washington, D.C., whose economy is of course fueled by government-related jobs.

Mr. Cortright wrote on his City Observatory site that “new manufacturing startups are a leading indicator of future prosperity.” 

He continued: “New startups are particularly important to the long-term health of any economy.  Most businesses only have a single location, and few ever move, especially across state lines.  The way you get a strong economy is by continually creating new businesses; most jobs come from the startup of new businesses and their subsequent growth and expansion, not from recruiting businesses from elsewhere.  As Kenan Fikri of EIG writes:

 . . . dozens of metropolitan areas are nurturing new manufacturers at much higher rates than the country overall. Those bright spots point to a real competitive advantage that explain how the country remains a technological and, yes, a manufacturing superpower.

“Oregon’s major industry clusters can trace their roots to local startups decades ago, from outdoor and athletic firms like Columbia Sportswear and Nike, and the progenitors of the Silicon Forest, Tektronix, Electro-Scientific Industries and Iron Fireman.

“The takeaway here is that regardless of cyclical variations in employment levels, and the rise and decline of existing firms, a healthy economy is one in which entrepreneurs are continually starting new businesses.  The data for Portland show that it has registered the strongest performance among US metropolitan areas in generating new manufacturing businesses over the past five years.”

The data was reminiscent of the recent report by the Urban Institute, featured in two Smart City Memphis blog posts on March 23 and March 25, 2026, in which the respected organization summarized the need for Memphis to create an entrepreneur-driven economy:

“Shelby County hosts nationally recognized firms yet faces a trend of economic stagnation. Our analysis found that Shelby County is underperforming compared with its peers in supporting prospective entrepreneurs and young, small firms, for which job growth is limited and firm survival is declining. Entrepreneurship may represent economic necessity—a lack of well-paying or flexible work—more than market opportunity to a greater degree in Shelby County than elsewhere. A combination of strategies is likely needed to empower entrepreneurs with near-at-hand market potential and to invest in the talent development and employment of others. The small and midsize firms of today may be the regional growth engines of tomorrow. But without adequate resources, their ability to reach their potential may be stifled.”

But the dimensions of the challenge does not stop there. The need for a sense of urgency was also underscored about the same time from the Brookings Metro Monitor report which ranked the 55 largest metro areas in the U.S., and ranked the Memphis MSA is #43 in growth, #49 in prosperity, #31 in inclusion, and #45 in racial inclusion.

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