Drink DC Out of the Recession

Beer industry contributes billions to local economy

WASHINGTON -- No matter how many people lose their jobs or how low the stock market goes, people are still going to drink.

"America's brewing industry continues to play a pivotal role in supporting this nation's economic viability," said Tom Long, president and chief commercial officer of MillerCoors, and chairman of the Beer Institute, the brewing industry's trade association.

Just ask the guys on the Breadline Bar Crawl. They're probably stumbling all over the place by now and will probably be throwing up all over Northwest by the time we get off work.

The beer industry contributes a total of almost $7 billion to D.C., Maryland and Virginia annually, according to a study commissioned by the Beer Institute and the National Beer Wholesalers Association.

"Beer distributors are proud providers of 95,000 quality jobs with solid wages and great benefits in every state and congressional district across the country," said Phil Terry, the chairman of NBWA. "As privately-owned businesses, beer distributors are invested in their communities and work hard to ensure the effective state-based system of alcohol regulation, which works to keep communities and consumers safe."

Safe from drunks. Beer distributors, brewers and importers help communities develop and implement programs promoting responsibile drinking and help fight alcohol abuse. Such programs also target underage drinking.

For D.C., the economic impact includes 4,376 jobs paying $172,904,816 in wages and $47,888,720 in federal and local taxes. Those numbers are 29,294 jobs paying $895,889,734 in wages and $171,455,061 in taxes for Maryland and 40,908 jobs paying $1,312,682,368 in wages and $253,287,324 in Virginia. And that doesn't include the police force.

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Nationally, the industry directly and indirectly generates $198 billion annually.

"These numbers demonstrate that our industry is essential to several sectors of the U.S. economy, particularly as the nation struggles to regain its footing in this uncertain climate," said Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute.

Plus, beer helps take the sting out of our pops of Irish whiskey.

Get details at BeerServesAmerica.org.

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