The popular wisdom is that the U.S. manufacturing sector is being hollowed out, and there's some truth to that. It follows from that popular belief that in a recession, manufacturing is taking an especially hard beating. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
Don Boudreaux points me toward this BusinessWeek article that breaks down all the positive trends that are surviving the recession:
In fact, even in the midst of a global recession, the U.S. exported an estimated $1.377 trillion worth of goods last year, according to the authoritative CIA World Factbook. Nearly half of the exports were capital goods: aircraft, computers, electric power machinery, office machines, telecommunications equipment, and the like. Industrial supplies, such as organic chemicals, accounted for another nearly 27 percent. And consumer goods, including pharmaceuticals, and agricultural products accounted for 15 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
One takeaway from this: Helping businesses export and helping businesses find ways to make things abroad are still growth industries.
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