Despite the American working class being devastated by the loss of good paying factory jobs, actual manufacturing output of the United States has doubled in the previous three decades.
The following information is summarized from this CBS Marketwatch article:
— Manufacturing still the largest sector of the U.S. economy — The U.S. is second only to China as a manufacturing leader, and manufacturing companies account for 77% of what the private sector spends and research and development each year.
— Manufacturing output in the U.S. is near a record high — U.S. factories produce twice as much as they did in 1984, but with one-third fewer workers.
— Refined oil is America’s top manufactured good — While crude oil often comes from other countries, refining the oil into products such as gasoline and fuel oil are America’s top manufactured product with $700 billion in sales per year, four times as much as the No. 2 product of light trucks. America’s other top manufactured products in order are pharmaceuticals, airplanes, automobiles, iron and steel, animal slaughtering, plastics, organic chemicals, and petrochemicals.
“Most Americans now work in service-producing industries, where inequalities in opportunities, skills and incomes are more apparent. Recreating an economy that provides equitable growth won’t be easy, especially if we pine for the good old days when a third of us worked at the factory.”