Signs of optimism regarding the strength of American manufacturing have been popping up all over the country in recent months. Confidence in our domestic industries has been tough to come by in recent days, but some indicators of economic prosperity are starting to make their presence felt in factories and facilities across the United States.
Many know about the long decline of U.S. manufacturing during the last half of the 20th Century, and the global financial crisis of 2008 seemed to be a death knell for many. Concerns about the federal deficit and the outsourcing of American manufacturing jobs to foreign soil have become much more mainstream in recent years. Political battlegrounds have been staged simply on the promise of more work in manufacturing.
However, some data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the decline is bottoming out and may even be reversing, at least slightly. Between the years 2000 and 2009, the number of full-time manufacturing jobs in America was reduced by more than 5 million, from 17.2 million jobs to 11.8 million jobs. Although we’re nowhere near that 2000 peak, manufacturing employment has made mild gains every year since 2009. Currently, just under 12 million American workers are employed by manufacturing industries.
Percentage of gross domestic product is another important factor that determines the actual strength of American manufacturing and production industries. Again, the years between 2000 and 2009 were very damaging for these businesses, according to statistics cited in this piece published on Manufacturing.net. However, two years after 2009, manufacturing had recovered by almost an entire percentage point, contributing 11.9 percent of the country’s total GDP.
Manufacturing firms swept up in this wave of optimism should make sure that they have state-of-the-art machining equipment on hand to continue operating efficiently and take on even more projects. C Marshall Fabrication Machinery of Simi Valley, CA, is a purveyor of the best quality in plate rolls, angle rolls, press brakes and other metalworking machines.
On November 18-21, FABTECH 2013 returns to Chicago. FABTECH is the most important manufacturing show in America and everyone who wants to be someone in this business will be there. Our next post will focus on FABTECH, so be on the look out for that!