Western manufacturing employment: trends and peaks over 30 years

U.S. manufacturing employment has been declining for 40 years, but this trend has not affected all regions equally. This paper examines employment changes in the Western region since 1990 to identify trends in the basket of subindustries unique to the region.

Exploring Midwest manufacturing employment from 1990 to 2019

Using data from the Current Employment Statistics program, this article explores manufacturing employment dynamics between 1990 and 2019 in the Midwest region of the United States. The article compares and contrasts employment trends for both the region as a whole and the individual states that comprise it. Additionally, the article presents an examination of selected detailed industries. For context, the article uses periods within historical business cycles to frame analysis of manufacturing employment trends.

Automation and sectoral reallocation

Empirical evidence in Dauth et al. (J Eur Econ Assoc, 2021) suggests that industrial robot adoption in Germany has led to a sectoral reallocation of employment from manufacturing to services, leaving total employment unaffected. We rationalize this evidence through the lens of a general equilibrium model with two sectors, matching frictions and endogenous participation. Automation induces firms to create fewer vacancies and job seekers to search less in the automatable sector (manufacturing). The service sector expands due to the sectoral complementarity in the production of the final good and a positive wealth effect for the household. Analysis across steady states shows that the reduction in manufacturing employment can be offset by the increase in service employment. The model can also replicate the magnitude of the decline in the ratio of manufacturing employment to service employment in Germany between 1994 and 2014.

Manufacturing employment in the Southeast: examining the last 30 years

U.S. manufacturing has been in decline for the last forty years, bringing real economic impact. This paper examines the Southern region experience. Variation in rate of decline and industry evolution are shown across states. The important transportation equipment manufacturing industry is explored in more detail. The overall takeaway is that manufacturing looks different across the Southeast.