Economic Snapshot | Inequality and Poverty

Job growth in manufacturing

A weekly presentation of downloadable charts and short analyses designed to graphically illustrate important economic issues. Updated every Wednesday.

Snapshot for September 19, 2001.

Job growth in manufacturing
Over the course of the current business cycle, manufacturing employment peaked in 1998 and has been declining since. Jobs in the 12-month period between May 1999 and May 2000 were 188,000 below the previous 12-month period (May 1998 to May 1999); in the period from May 2000 to May 2001, the year-to-year decline swelled to 211,000. In 21 states (see figure below) the pace of job loss accelerated. (In an additional 15 states the decline in manufacturing continued, though at the same pace or slower.) In only 14 states and the District of Columbia did manufacturing employment rise between the last two periods, but, even among these states, in only nine were there more manufacturing jobs in 2000-01 than two years earlier (1998-99).

Manufacturing job slowdown

This week’s Snapshot by EPI economist Edith Rasell.

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