Home to over 100 manufacturing establishments in 2021, Daviess County Indiana is experiencing both growth and diversification of its local economy.
Nominal GDP for the county grew by 7.9% in 2021, following growth of 7.6% in 2020. The productivity of the local labor force is credited with providing an increase in employment in Daviess County during the past ten years above the growth that would be expected if the county simply met national trends. Of the 640 manufacturing jobs created in the county in the past decade a shift-share analysis estimates that 387 jobs were created due to the favorable local environment.
Manufacturing is the dominant sector of the economy, providing nearly 20% of all employment in the county – 2,671 out of the 13,852 county business employees. Construction is also a large employer with 13% of the workforce, and growing fields such as Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (3.8%) and Information (~1% of the current labor force and growing at over 3%/year) are contributing as well.
The manufacturing cluster has a Location Quotient in the county of 1.9, which includes significant strength in the meat and poultry processing sector (a Location Quotient of 16.9) and the cabinet production sector (LQ of 15.6).
Washington is the county seat and enjoyed the opening of its first-ever interstate interchange with the arrival of I-69 in 2012. That improvement in the County’s transportation connections has been one element of the county’s growth over the past decade, a time which saw the number of manufacturing establishments increase from 76 to the current 101 level.
Demographically, Daviess County is distinctive in being home to one of the largest Amish populations of any county in the country, which uniquely affects the educational attainment statistics for the county. The Amish to participate actively in the local workforce, in the construction and manufacturing sectors in particular, as well as agriculture.
Defense sector employment is growing in Daviess County’s northwestern corner, where a state-certified technology park, West Gate @ Crane, sits just outside the gate of NSA Crane, a DoD research lab facility. Defense contractors in the field of electronic warfare are located at the park.