Economic Impact of American-made Furniture at DutchCrafters

Jim Miller 27/06/2025

“Made in the USA” is a proud label. Lately, given the impact or at least the intent of tariffs, it is a label that is coveted by business across many sectors of the economy. This is nowhere more evident than in the furniture industry, as retailers scramble to find new domestic manufacturers to replace or supplement imports from Canada, Mexico, Vietnam and China. I’m grateful that no such adjustment is needed at DutchCrafters. For more than 20 years, 100% of our furniture has been made in America.

There are many reasons to buy American made furniture. Some of our customers find value in a patriotic expression. Others rightly associate American made with exceptional quality, especially furniture made by the Amish. There are some who value that American made generally comes with higher commitments to social responsibility (such as worker safety standards) or ecological benefits (sustainable practices and avoidance of ocean freight). All these reasons are legitimate in my view.

An additional motivator for many of our customers is the belief that American made furniture strengthens local, American economies. That Made in the USA label directly supports American jobs. This is not merely an abstract – these are jobs held by friends and neighbors in various communities across the country.

Amish Finishing Shop — DutchCrafters founders Jim and Linse Miller visit an Amish finishing shop in Indiana.

As the founder of DutchCrafters, I’m proud of this impact. I go to bed at night feeling good about our contributions – masterfully crafted products made in America, sold to Americans, supporting communities that are important to me. And while I’m not an economist, I can offer some numbers that size up the impact.

Jobs from American-made Furniture

I’ll start with the approximate 50 DutchCrafters employees who work in our warehouse in LaGrange, Indiana, our showroom in Alpharetta, Georgia, and our headquarters and showroom in Sarasota, Florida. Roughly speaking, at an average annual income of $60,000, that’s $3.0M annually spread between those communities – with the majority in Sarasota, where I live. We are not one of the largest employers in Sarasota, but our economic development council is happy to have us.

Our furniture is made in small Amish woodshops in three Amish communities: Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Holmes County, Ohio; and Shipshewana, Indiana. DutchCrafters has active business relationships with about 150 builders – some are large and many are small. When I say small shop, I mean that many of these builders are family-owned businesses that employ between 8-15 persons. There are some that are single-man operations and a few with more than 40 employees. Twelve employees is a pretty good estimate on average, which means we (along with our competitors), help to support about 1,800 jobs in these communities. Though not the only dealer for these builders, we are often one of their top five. Our direct economic impact just for manufacturing was approximately $10M in 2024. Roughly 75% of that is labor, while the rest is raw materials. I estimate that the labor is the equivalent of 125 full time employees. Most of those employees, though not all, are the primary income source for their families.

We deliver our furniture nationwide, via our own DutchCrafters Deliveries trucks and drivers or with trusted longtime partners, who are generally owner-operators of trucks. They pick up the furniture from our warehouse, carefully blanket wrap it like a baby, and deliver it across the country to the homes that will treasure it for decades to come. Without double-counting our own employees, this provides a significant source of income for about a dozen more persons.

Summing it up, that’s the equivalent of about 190 jobs across five states, or more than 2,000 jobs that we support at some level.

Amish Chair Maker — Jim and Linse Miller talk with an Amish chair maker in Indiana.

Money Multiplier Effect from American-made Furniture

There’s a lot that I didn’t retain from my economics courses in college, buy one concept that did stick with me is the money multiplier effect. Every employee who earns a living from our business spends at least part of that $60,000 on housing, food, clothing, transportation, taxes and much more. This, in turn, supports more jobs in their communities and adds to vitality and economic sustainability. The multiplier is trickier math than I care to handle, but a simple model often uses 3 as an estimate. The point here is that economic impact is greater than earnings.

American Raw Materials

I mentioned earlier that labor is only a part of the direct cost of furniture. Raw materials must also be included. In our business, almost all those raw materials also originate in the USA. Here is the breakdown:

Wood is by far the largest percentage of raw materials by volume and by cost. Our hardwoods include oak, maple, cherry, walnut, hickory and a few other species. Some drawer boxes are made of pine or poplar for maximum benefit. Wood makes up, on average, about 97% of raw materials by volume and 90% by cost. Approximately 80-90% of the wood used in DutchCrafters furniture is harvested in the Northeast United States – from Michigan to Maine. The rest comes from Canada. So by volume, about 78-88% of all our raw materials originate in the USA.
The finishes used on our furniture are less than 1% by volume but as much as 5% by cost. Most of our finishes are made in America. About 95% of the cost of finishing is labor, which is American – not the raw material.
The same is true of hardware, like screws, bolts, knobs, drawer slides and the like. Many of these materials are imported. Our builders find American made hardware when possible, but the reliable and cost effective supply chains are typically foreign. This hardware is less than 3% of raw material by volume but can be 5-8% by cost. Again, about 70% of the cost of hardware is labor, which is American – not the raw material itself.
Nearly all our furniture is blanket-wrapped, not packaged and boxed. While boxes are used occasionally on parts or some minor categories of furniture, it is a negligible consideration.
Finally, there is the fuel that is required for delivery. There’s no getting around it. I’ll let you make your own determination about American sources of gasoline, but by volume and by cost, it is a minor consideration. The fuel stations and much of the industry is American.

The supply chains for these raw materials, of course, are largely American. The forests are American owned, the mills and the delivery trucks that deliver the wood are American.

We have other operational expenses besides employees and the direct costs of product and delivery, including marketing, finance and facilities. I prefer to support small Amish woodshops more than banks, Google and Microsoft. Still all of these major expenses are spent here in America, also supporting jobs in places like Mountain View, California; Redmond, Washington; and Wilmington, Delaware. So I’m glad for that impact too.

Collective Impact of American-made Furniture

I’ll finish with some broad generalizations.

First, our business directly supports about 190 American jobs and indirectly thousands more. The earnings from those jobs go to further benefit the local economies, multiplying its impact in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, plus residual impact in other states.

Second, for every dollar of direct product cost, about 97-98% supports American jobs and American-sourced raw materials. That is an impressive number by any industry standard.

Third, because we also serve American markets, many of our operational costs are here in the US – things like marketing, finance and facilities.

Together, this collective impact is significant. Our commitment to providing American made furniture results in real value for our customers and significant economic benefits to the communities where we work and source our products. The value is multiplied when we consider the collective impact for the industry as a whole. At DutchCrafters, we’re proud of this contribution.