Between 2009 and 2013 the federal government and the states spent $10.2 billion per year on public safety net programs for workers (and their families) who hold frontline manufacturing production jobs. This includes workers directly hired by manufacturers and those hired through staffing agencies. A third (34 percent) of the families of frontline manufacturing production workers are enrolled in one or more public safety net program. For those workers employed through staffing agencies, the percentage of families utilizing safety net programs is 50 percent—similar to the rate for fast-food workers and their families. The high utilization of public safety net programs by frontline manufacturing production workers is primarily a result of low wages, rather than inadequate work hours. The families of 32 percent of all manufacturing production workers and 46 percent of those employed through staffing agencies who worked at least 35 hours a week and 45 weeks during the year were enrolled in one or more public safety net program. Eight of the ten states with the highest participation rates in public programs that support frontline production workers’ families are in the American south; the other two states are New York and California.