Craft beer jobs grow while big beer stalls, new study finds
The Seattle Times - A study released in May shows the number of brewing jobs across the U.S. has increased 8% since 2016, with nearly all of that growth coming from craft outfits as large brewery employment remained stagnant.
The Beer Serves America study, conducted for the Beer Institute of Washington, D.C., and the National Beer Wholesalers Association, also shows the U.S. beer industry in 2018 contributed $328.4 billion toward the economy, employed 2.2 million people, and paid $58.6 billion in taxes — about 40% of the price of every beer.
The report says the volume of beer sales is down 2.4% from 2016 but employment is up 8%, with large and regional brewers accounting for 58% of jobs, unchanged from 2016.
But employment growth has come as the number of breweries has jumped by 1,191 in the past two years, most being small brewers or brewpubs. The Brewers Association, a national craft beer group, reported in April that the craft beer segment grew by 4 percent in 2018, grabbing about 13% of market share.