Indiana’s outlook for 2020

Abstract

The government sector also produces about 8 percent of output.8 Over the past year, various media have reported conflicting information about the extent of impacts from tariffs on imports and exports in America. [...]any attempt to accurately quantify the impact of the current trade war on the Indiana economy at this point, would be impossible. [...]with the exception of one year (2009), Indiana has led the nation in manufacturing employment since 1996, when Indiana took the manufacturing mantle from North Carolina (see Table l).9 While nearly one in every five Indiana jobs is in manufacturing, the overweighting in the manufacturing sector is even more pronounced in terms of GSP. Yet, Hoosier farmers (totaling over 94,000 in 2017) as individuals are certainly affected by the trade war.11 According to the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (2019), Indiana was the eighth-largest agricultural exporter in the country as of 2017, the 10th-largest farming state, and in the top five among U.S. states that produce ducks, popcorn, ice cream, tomatoes, pumpkins, turkeys, corn, soybeans, watermelons and hogs. [...]farming accounts for a relatively small number of jobs available to Hoosiers and has been declining for many decades. [...]farming is not an accurate representative to gauge our economic condition in the near future.