“1. U.S. manufacturing corporations are on track to earn record profits in 2011, of about $600 billion based on data available from the U.S. Census through the third quarter (see chart above). That’s an increase of 22 percent from 2010, and more than four times the 4.8 percent increase in profits for all U.S. corporations in 2011. It’s also double the $300 billion of manufacturing profits in 2009 and almost 15 percent higher than the previous record of $525 billion in 2006.
2. While the overall economy (real GDP) grew by only 1.7 percent in 2011, the manufacturing component of U.S. industrial production grew at more than twice that rate (4.0 percent). And manufacturing output in the Midwest “rust-belt” region of the country grew by an incredible 8.4 percent last year, suggesting that the traditional manufacturing heartland of America is leading the industrial comeback.
3. Over the most recent 12-month period from January 2011 to January 2012, manufacturing employment grew by more than 2 percent, compared to a less than 1.5 percent growth in total payroll employment over that same period.
4. For the last eight consecutive months starting in June 2011, the jobless rate for the manufacturing sector has been below the national average, and is currently at 8.4 percent, or almost a full half-point below the U.S. average of 8.8 percent (not seasonally adjusted). There has never before been a comparable period when the jobless rate for manufacturing was below the national average for that many consecutive months since the BLS starting tracking industry unemployment rates in 2000.”
I keep hearing that the demise of American manufacturing, that we “don’t make anything anymore”, is upon us. No, not really – we just don’t make the cheap stuff anymore. That said, it still is not easy given all the regulations that these folks have to hop through.
(H/T: The Enterprise Blog)
