Industry Data
What the industry can charge vs. what it must pay
Good policy and good business planning start with good data. The two charts below tell the central economic story of aerospace and defense manufacturing in one glance. Commercial and military aircraft programs run on long, predictable planning cycles — multi-year fixed-price contracts and long-term agreements — so the prices producers receive climb slowly and smoothly. The inputs those producers must buy do not. Both charts are served live from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED®) and update automatically each month; every series is indexed to January 2019 = 100 so they can be compared directly.
Chart 1 — Output prices: aerospace & defense producer price indexes
Producer price indexes for aerospace product & parts manufacturing (NAICS 3364), aircraft (336411), aircraft engines & engine parts (336412), and search, detection & navigation instruments (334511) — the avionics segment at the heart of Long Island's industry. Note how flat and orderly these lines are: predictable long-term production planning holds d$/dt low.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED®, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Series PCU3364133641, PCU336411336411, PCU336412336412, PCU334511334511, indexed to Jan 2019 = 100. Chart updates automatically; click it for the interactive version.
Chart 2 — Input costs: materials, energy, and labor
What it takes to build the product: aluminum mill shapes, industrial electric power, electronic components and accessories, and average hourly earnings in durable-goods manufacturing. These are the costs a supplier eats when it quotes a fixed price today for parts it will deliver over the life of a long-term agreement.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED®, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Series WPU102501 (aluminum mill shapes), WPU0543 (industrial electric power), CEU3100000008 (durable-goods mfg. hourly earnings), WPU1178 (electronic components & accessories), indexed to Jan 2019 = 100. Chart updates automatically; click it for the interactive version.
The squeeze, in numbers
From January 2019 through mid-2026, aerospace output prices rose about 22% — a smooth 2–3% per year, the signature of an industry that plans production in decades. Over the same period, durable-goods manufacturing wages rose about 41%, industrial electricity about 40% and accelerating, and aluminum mill shapes about 93% — with violent swings along the way that no small supplier on a fixed-price contract can hedge. Electronic components tell the sharpest story of all: essentially flat for six years, then up roughly 27% in eighteen months. That shock also explains the one exception in Chart 1 — navigation and detection instruments, climbing steeply since 2024 — because defense electronics reprice as government contracts roll over, while the small suppliers beneath them stay locked to fixed-price agreements. The gap between the flat lines in Chart 1 and the climbing lines in Chart 2 is the margin squeeze on the supply chain's small and mid-size manufacturers: long-term agreements hold their selling prices nearly constant while their input costs move like commodities. That squeeze — and the workforce competition visible in the labor line — is the economic backdrop for every position LIFT advocates.
Research & white papers
3000 by 30: Building Long Island's Aerospace & Defense Workforce (PDF) — LIFT's workforce development proposal for New York State, including industry employment estimates and program funding analysis.
This data hub will grow. If there is an indicator, dataset, or analysis of New York's aerospace and defense economy that would help your planning, let us know.