Census of manufactures: lots of growth

Manufacturing & Technology News, Nov 30, 2006

Manufacturers spent $128.3 billion on capital expenditures last year, up from $114 billion in 2004, but far lower than the peak year of 2000, when they spent $154 billion, according to the Census Bureau's Annual Survey of Manufactures.

Value added for the manufacturing sector increased substantially last year, to $2.2 trillion, up from $2.041 trillion in 2004, while total value of shipments skyrocketed to $4.735 trillion, up from $4.308 trillion the previous year.

Wages for production workers rose modestly, from $332 billion in 2004 to $337 billion in 2005; and far from the peak year of 2000 ($363 billion). Production workers logged 19 billion hours, down from 19.3 billion in 2004 and down substantially from the peak years dating back to the 1970s, when the average was around 27 billion hours.

The Census Bureau's annual survey of manufactures describes in detail for every industrial sector the number of employees, hours worked, wages, value added, total cost of materials, value of inventories by stage of fabrication and total value of shipments, with a comparison to the previous four years. Most industries are experiencing substantial growth (food manufacturing, wood products, chemicals, mineral products, forging and many others), though some are headed in the wrong direction, like motor vehicle components and parts and apparel manufacturing.

The 340-page report, Statistics for Industry Groups and Industries, is located at http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/am0531gs1.pdf.>

COPYRIGHT 2006 Publishers & Producers

COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning