The Manufacturing Industry value-added was up from 2.894 Trillion in Q4 2022 to 2.904 Trillion in Q1 2023, an all-time high. The Durable Goods Manufacturing Sector was down slightly from 1.595 to 1.592 Trillion. Nondurable Goods were likewise up slightly from 1.299 to 1.311 Trillion.
"As an engine of economic growth, American manufacturers contribute more than $2.35 Trillion to the US economy -- every dollar spent in the manufacturing industry results in an additional $2.79 added to the economy, making it the highest multiplier effect of any section," said Bill LaPlante, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment.
The majority of manufacturing firms in the United States are quite small. In 2020, there were 239,524 firms in the manufacturing sector, with all but 3,024 firms considered to be small (i.e. having fewer than 500 employees). In fact, 74.4% of these firms have fewer than 20 employees, and 93.1% have fewer than 100 employees. With that said, the ulk of employment comes from larger firms, with 58.4% of all employees in the manufacturing industry sector working for firms with 500 or more employees.
Manufacturing employment rose by 7000 in June, 2023. The sector added just 15,000 manufacturing workers during the first six months of 2023, slowing materially after adding a robust 385,000 and 390,000 employees in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
More positively, there were 12,090,000 manufacturing workers in June 2023.
In 2021, manufacturing sector workers in the United States earned $95,990 on average, including pay and benefits. Workers in all private non-farm industries earned $81,308 on average.
Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers in manufacturing rose 0.6% from $26.03 in April to $26.19 in May, with 4..9 % growth over the past 12 months, up from 4.7% year over year. Wages continue to increase at healthy paces.
Sources: Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Output per hour for all workers has increased by more than 2.25 times since 1987. By contrast, productivity is roughly 1.8 times greater for all non-farm businesses. Durable goods manufacturers have done even better, exceeding 2.6 times the output per worker.
91% of manufacturing sector employees were eligible for health insurance benefits in 2022, according to Kaiser Family Foundation. This is significantly higher than the 78% average for all US firms.
Manufacturers in the United States perform 55.2% of all private-sector Research and Development in the nation, driving more innovation than any other sector. Research and development in the Manufacturing Sector has risen from $132.5 billion in 2000 to $347.4 billion in 2021.
Taken alone manufacturing in the United States would be the eighth largest economy in the world. With $2.24 trillion value added from manufacturing in 2020, only seven other nations (including the U.S.) would rank high in terms of their GDP. Those other nations were U.S., China, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, and France.
In 2022, manufacturers in the United States exported $1,596.79 billion, with durable and nondurable goods exports also hitting all-time highs.
Source: U.S. Commerce Department
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