NORBIC focuses exclusively on the manufacturing sector because of its vital importance to Illinois' economy and residents. Manufacturing directly employs 961,000 Illinois workers; its direct and indirect induced demand generates another 1.4 million positions in other industries, or nearly one third of total state employment. NORBIC's geographic focus stems from the fact that two thirds of Illinois' $72 billion manufacturing output comes from the Northeast Economic Development Region. Manufacturing in the Northeast Illinois area is dominated by small, privately held companies which are under significant pressure. Both the number of manufacturers in the Northeast Economic Development Region and total manufacturing employment has declined over the past eight years. In fact, since 2000, the region has lost over 100,000 manufacturing jobs. These job losses have disproportionately hurt the local economy more than losses in other sectors of the economy in two significant manners. First, due to manufacturing's high 'multiplier' effect, (that is, each manufacturing job is tied to 3 or 4 other jobs regionally) a lost manufacturing job directly leads to other job losses. Second, since almost half of all manufacturing workers are minorities, these lost jobs tend to impact economically depressed areas with little other alternative employment opportunities.