Manufacturing Continues to be Among Top Five Largest Employment Sectors

It’s no secret the manufacturing sector has a major impact on the U.S. economy, but every year Manufacturing Week offers an opportunity to recognize this sector’s significant impact on the nation.

Manufacturing Week starts today and ends Friday on Manufacturing Day, a day celebrated every year on the first Friday in October.

This year marks the U.S. Census Bureau’s 10th anniversary celebration of Manufacturing Week.

It will join other agencies and business groups in recognizing the importance of the manufacturing sector to the U.S. economy to highlight the sector’s impact and promote manufacturing careers.

Beginning today and continuing throughout the week, the Census Bureau will be adding blogs, infographics and other key content to the Manufacturing Day webpage to recognize the observance.

On this webpage, we present census data on all aspects of the manufacturing industry in the United States.

One of the most popular and useful parts of the Manufacturing Day webpage is the updated infographics section.

The infographic below shows manufacturing compared to other sectors in the U.S. economy. Much like previous years, manufacturing remains one of the top five largest employers.

In addition to this infographic, the visual below showcases the annual statistics available from the Annual Survey of Manufactures on the manufacturing sector.

Another segment of the updated Manufacturing Day webpage shows some key resources:

• Economic Indicators: monthly and quarterly data that are timely, reliable and offer comprehensive measures of the U.S. economy.
• Annual Surveys and Programs: related annual surveys and programs that have direct links to data on manufacturing statistics.
• Stories, Blogs and Trainings: includes America Counts stories, additional blogs and upcoming (and recorded) trainings offered by the Census Bureau to help better understand the importance of this key sector.

The Census Bureau issued a press release to explain the importance of recognizing Manufacturing Week.

It highlights more content and events, including the release on Manufacturing Day of updated Census Bureau manufacturing data. As part of the Historical Quarterly Financial Report Data, the release will provide statistics going back to 1947.

Tune in to our Twitter and Facebook pages for the most up-to-date information about this celebration.

Adam Grundy is a supervisory statistician in the Census Bureau’s Economic Management Division.