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The Beer Institute releases economic impact study

glass bottles
Pixabay | CC BY 2.0
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Pixabay.com
File photo of glass bottles.

 The American beer industry’s economic impact today is $253 billion.

That's roughly 1.5 percent in U.S. Gross Domestic Product, creating 1.75 million direct and indirect jobs.

That’s a far cry from nearly four decades ago.

“In 1976 there were 50 breweries left in the United States. Today there are somewhere north of 3,000 and growing.”

That's Jim McGreevy, President and CEO of The Beer Institute. The agency just released its 2014 Beer Serves America report, revealing Michigan’s beer production as a revenue generator. 

“Six-point-six billion dollars in economic contribution to your state alone," McGreevy says.

And it’s a job creator.

“In your state [Michigan]: nearly 60,000 jobs," McGreevy says. "Which represents about $320 billion in taxes paid to the state in taxes of all kinds - from excise taxes to income taxes to business taxes.”

There are more than 190 brewers in the state requiring a supply chain and distribution, McGreevy says.

“Nearly 2,000 jobs in agriculture, nearly 10,000 in business and personal services, a few hundred in construction, 3,000 in manufacturing, nearly 2,000 in retail," he says. "So you see across the board when it comes to jobs - there’s a lot of segments in the economy that rely on beer. And we’re very proud of that.”

McGreevy also recommends Americans drink responsibly.

Patrick joined WGVU Public Media in December, 2008 after eight years of investigative reporting at Grand Rapids' WOOD-TV8 and three years at WYTV News Channel 33 in Youngstown, Ohio. As News and Public Affairs Director, Patrick manages our daily radio news operation and public interest television programming. An award-winning reporter, Patrick has won multiple Michigan Associated Press Best Reporter/Anchor awards and is a three-time Academy of Television Arts & Sciences EMMY Award winner with 14 nominations.