Number: RL32179
Title: Manufacturing Trends: Long-Term Context for Today's Policy Issues
Authors: Stephen Cooney, Bernard A. Gelb, and Robert Pirog, Resources, Science, and Industry Division 
Abstract: Members of Congress have become increasingly concerned about a perceived decline in U.S. manufacturing, particularly as it may affect employment levels in their states or districts. For two years after the economy emerged from a relatively shallow recession in 2001, there was a continuing loss in manufacturing jobs. And even as the recovery progresses, many fear that new non-manufacturing jobs will not have the same relatively high levels of wages and benefits traditionally associated with manufacturing. By contrast, despite the recession of 2001, the level of real (inflation-adjusted) U.S. manufacturing output as of mid-2005 stood almost 30% higher than at a similar point after the recession of 1991, with about 2.5 million fewer manufacturing employees. This is more than three times real manufacturing output in 1960, when a comparable number of people were employed in manufacturing.
Pages: 66
Date: September 9, 2005