Supplier.io Honors Firms for Diverse Supplier Initiatives

More than a million jobs were supported and $160 billion was spent with diverse suppliers in the past year thanks to 326 companies studied in a new Supplier.io report on supplier diversity released on Tuesday.

The 2023 Economic Impact report found that that 326 companies directly supported 1.3 million jobs and spent an average of $1.28 million with diverse suppliers. For each dollar spent with small and diverse suppliers, the Supplier.io report said there was a $1.80 benefit in the community.

“Responsible sourcing is a competitive differentiator, which is why 97% of enterprise executives continue to support supplier diversity programs,” said Aylin Basom, CEO of Supplier.io. “By investing in small and diverse suppliers, companies are not only fostering innovation and enhancing their supply chain competitiveness, but also effectively reducing risks and costs. Most importantly, it enables businesses to support their communities and fuel economic growth. Our Supply Chain Diversity Excellence Award is a recognition of the organizations that demonstrate significant commitment to enriching the global marketplace through inclusive procurement strategies.”

Supplier.io recognized a number of businesses whose efforts to promote supplier diversity directly led to jobs as part of its first Supply Chain Diversity Excellence Awards. They are:

50K Jobs: Comcast, Delta Airlines, Health Trust, RTX.
20K Jobs: Constellation Energy, CVS Health, Cummins, T-Mobile, UPS, Westrock.
10K Jobs: ABM Industries Incorporated, Baxter, Booz Allen, International Paper, Kraft Heinz, Lowes, Medline, National Grid, Northwell Health, Randstad, UnitedHealth Group.

The professional, scientific, and technical services industry supported the most job growth, the report found, with $35.7 billion in spend to support over 200,000 jobs. California is the leader in supplier diversity, generating the most jobs, wages, and tax revenue, followed by Texas, New York, and New Jersey.

Overall, $31.4 billion in tax revenue was generated by the spend from the 326 companies included in the report.

“Our report shines a spotlight on companies that are not only excelling in their respective industries but are also making a tangible difference in the communities where they operate,” Basom said in the report. “We take immense pride in collaborating with some of the foremost companies across various industries. Our shared mission is to empower these organizations to effectively manage and foster the growth of their diverse spending through data-driven analytics. We firmly believe that supplier diversity is not merely a business strategy but a catalyst for positive change with far-reaching implications. The companies featured in this report are not just committed to diversity as a principle; they are actively shaping a more diverse and inclusive economic landscape.”

The report used output, jobs, incomes and taxes to generate its economic impact analysis, which it said is a way to “translate the dollars spent on products and services in a specific community into jobs, wages, taxes and more that flow into that community.”

According to the report, the total economic impact totaled $286.8 billion in total output, 1.3 million total jobs supported, and $104 billion in total incomes earned. Total diverse and small supplier spend totaled $160.1 billion among 124,644 unique suppliers. Total diverse supplier spend was $33.4 billion with the remainder among small supplier spend.

Supplier.io suppliers, it said, supported 726,910 direct jobs, 280,672 indirect jobs, and 360,198 induced (the jobs created to support Supplier.io’s customers’ purchases), and led to $60.1 billion in direct spending, $21.5 billion in indirect spend, and $22.4 billion in induced spending.

Breaking those numbers down further, the company found $45.2 billion spend at minority-owned businesses, $42.6 billion at women-owned businesses, $10.4 billion at veteran-owned businesses, and $3 billion at disabled-owned businesses.

By ethnicity, Asian-American businesses received $18.7 billion in spend, followed by Hispanic-American at $11.3 billion, and African-American at $10.6 billion.