U.S. manufacturing slump may not be an immediate worry - WSJ

• The Wall Street Journal reports that the weakness in U.S. manufacturing, pressured by a tired global economy and tit-for-tat trade volleys between the Trump administration and China, may not be much of a harbinger of bad things to come, at least not in the near term.
• The domestic economy has been dominated by services for some time now so it is capable of continued growth despite weakness domestic manufacturing. At present, U.S. unemployment is 3.5%, the lowest in ~50 years, and growth should be sustained in Q3 (expected to be up 1.3% according to forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisors). Retail sales were up ~4% in September.
• In 2015 and 2016, factory output was down on a year-on-year basis for 18 straight months but GDP rose 2.9% and 1.6%, respectively, during the two years while employers added more than 5M jobs.
• Manufacturing comprises ~11% of U.S. domestic output, down from ~16% 20 years ago. Factory workers make up ~8.5% of the country's workforce, down from ~13% two decades ago.

Comments

[Bear Bait]

Sounds to me like the WSJ just got their rose colored paint brush out. 2015 and 2016 those were Obama years and WSJ gave them some good print. Interesting.

[awakeinwa]

Made boatloads under Obama. Peruse TQQQ those 8 yrs. couple thousand percent gains. Thanks Obama

[X-Capitalizt]

Makes one wonder why trump wants to bring back manufacturing to the US. Time to look forward not backward.

[Late to the Party]

Ross Perot already stayed why we need to keep it in the us. Democrats laughed at him and signed nafta. After gutting our manufacturing jobs and putting millions in poverty the dnc is now impeaching trump to ensure no manufacturing job will ever return to the us. This is classic dnc. Like Obama said. Those jobs are never coming back and as long as a Democrat remains in power this will be true

[X-Capitalizt]

Manufacturing at scale is not where new innovation and R&D efforts are best placed. Services is the future. The old farts clamoring for the return of manufacturing just do not see what the future holds. Only the past.

[Late to the Party]

service. you mean low wage jobs that only entices people to go into mass debt. if you want to see a place that is solely service based and not manufacturing based, go visit hawaii. The owners of the businesses are rich. The employees are all poor. Manufacturing built the american middle class. Then democrats destroyed it within a generation. now they want your children to work service industry jobs for minimum wage. That is the future of america.

Let this old fart tell you something kid. in my days a kid getting out of high school could have a long good paying job in a factory. he could buy his own car and home in his 20s-30s. create a family and had time to work on his hobbies. These days you "innovative" kids still live in your dad's house well into your 40s, work minimum wage jobs at walmart, and cry about poverty.

that is the real result of service jobs.

[1winner]

NO SH$&!!! Lol, our country is not a manufacturing economy!!!!! Look at the top 10 S&P 500 for god sakes.

Better leading indicator to follow would be a drop in knowledge, innovation, and software company output....

If we were Vietnam, a lower manufacturing print may be an issue...not anymore. Wake up folks!