US Manufacturing—Alive and Well

A frequently heard refrain is US manufacturing is either dead, dying or seriously impaired. This underpins a great deal of political rhetoric and discourse, but few stop to check if the claim is even accurate.

Here’s a graphical depiction of the state of US manufacturing. As shown, the US is the world’s leader in industrial production and has achieved this rank via massively increased productivity. It’s awfully hard to square “largest” and “extremely productive” with false perceptions of a dead or dying sector of the economy.