FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                          FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2000
                                
Public Information Office                                    CB00-44
301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax)
301-457-1037 (TDD) 
e-mail: pio@census.gov

Irma Harahush
301-457-3314

        Puerto Rico's Manufacturers Ship $47 Billion in Goods in 1997,  
                          Census Bureau Reports

  The Commerce Department's Census Bureau reported today that Puerto
Rico's manufacturing industries shipped $46.9 billion worth of goods and
employed 163,605 persons at 2,092 locations in 1997.

  Chemicals and allied products industries, at $25.4 billion, accounted
for more than half of the value of the shipments. Food and kindred
products, with $5.3 billion in shipments, was a distant second in the
manufacturing sector.

   Other highlights of the report titled, 1997 Economic Census of
Outlying Areas: Puerto Rico Manufacturing, include:
    
   - In 1997, Puerto Rico's manufacturing sector had an annual payroll of
$3.3 billion and spent $10.3 billion on materials.

   - Between 1992 and 1997, the value of manufacturer's shipments in
Puerto Rico increased from $31.3 billion to $46.9 billion while the number
of employees and payroll climbed from 158,181 and $2.7 billion to 163,605
and $3.3 billion, respectively. Meanwhile, the number of manufacturing
establishments fell from 2,258 to 2,092.

   - Drugs (primarily pharmaceutical preparations), with $23.2 billion in
shipments, was far and away the top chemicals and allied products
industry, while beverages, with $3.2 billion in shipments, ranked first
among food and kindred products.

   - The San Juan-Caguas-Arecibo Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical
Area, with $31.6 billion, accounted for about two-thirds of the value of
shipments by Puerto Rico's manufacturers. Meanwhile, among the island's 78
municipios (county equivalents), Barceloneta led in value of shipments
with $4.8 billion.

   - The total value of shipments to the U.S. mainland by Puerto Rico
manufacturers in 1997 was $32.5 billion or 69.4 percent of their total
shipments of $46.9 billion.

  Released on the Internet, the report provides data on the number of
employees, production workers, value added by manufacture, cost of
materials, value of shipments and capital expenditures for all
manufacturing establishments for Puerto Rico.

  The 1997 Economic Census of Outlying Areas was conducted by mail. Data
were collected for businesses with payrolls only. Economic censuses of
Puerto Rico and insular areas (Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern
Mariana Islands) are conducted every five years for years ending in 2 and
7.

  Data for the 1997 Economic Census of Puerto Rico are reported on a
Standard Industrial Classification basis, but future censuses will use the
North American Industry Classification System.

  These data will become available in printed form and on CD-ROM in April.
Reports on construction, wholesale trade, retail trade and service
industries will be issued later this year.

  All data compiled are subject to nonsampling errors. Nonsampling errors
can be attributed to many sources: inability to identify all cases in the
actual universe; definition and classification difficulties; differences
in the interpretation of questions; errors in recording or coding the data
obtained; and other errors of collection, response, coverage, processing
and estimation for missing or misreported data.