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Want to know a bit more about one of the oldest and most integral industries to the U.S. economy? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released new data in Nov., 2011, on the state of the manufacturing industry. Here is an overview of what the industry comprises and some figures indicating its current state (hint: it's not as bad as the media may have led you to believe).
The manufacturing industry is categorized by the BLS as belonging to the larger goods-producing industries supersector, which also includes natural resources and mining; construction; and mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction. The BLS's North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) defines manufacturing as being made up of "establishments engaged in the mechanical, physical, or chemical transformation of materials, substances, or components into new products."
The NAICS breaks down manufacturing into an impressive 21 subsectors, or smaller industries within manufacturing.
These are: apparel manufacturing; beverage and tobacco product manufacturing; chemical manufacturing; computer and electronic product manufacturing; electrical equipment, appliance, and component manufacturing; fabricated metal product manufacturing; food manufacturing; furniture and related product manufacturing; leather and allied product manufacturing; machinery manufacturing; nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing; paper manufacturing; petroleum and coal products manufacturing; plastics and rubber products manufacturing; primary metal manufacturing; printing and related support activities; textile mills; textile product mills; transportation equipment manufacturing; wood product manufacturing; and miscellaneous manufacturing.
While the news has long been saying that manufacturing jobs are disappearing in this country, recent data indicates there have been more job gains than job losses, though it is close. The BLS reports that in the first quarter 2010 there were 460,000 lost jobs in manufacturing with just 405,000 gains, for a total of 55,000 more workers becoming unemployed. But that figure reversed in the second quarter 2010, when there were 479,000 new jobs and 394,000 layoffs. The third and fourth quarters of 2010 reported narrower job add-to-loss margins, but in both quarters more jobs were added than lost: 43,000 more new jobs in the third quarter and 11,000 more in the fourth.
The better news is that the unemployment rate in this industry has been steadily declining for most of 2011. In October, the unemployment rate was 7.7 percent, the lowest it has been since Dec., 2008. After spiking drastically in 2009, when it stayed above 10 percent all year -- reaching crescendo in Jan. 2010 at 13 percent -- the jobless rate in manufacturing has been slowly but surely coming back down. 2011 has been a much better year for employment than were the previous two, though the numbers have a bit further to go before matching 2006's annual low point of 4.2 percent unemployment.
As for earnings, the BLS reports that they have been relatively steady for July-Oct., 2011. The average employee in manufacturing, across all subsectors and job types, earned $23.90 per hour and worked 40.5 hours a week in October. This is just a hairsbreadth higher than in July, when the figures were $23.77 and 40.3, respectively.