Manufacturing jobs, including new manufacturing jobs, continue to deserve their reputation as good jobs. We use a relatively new data source, the Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI), to analyze the earnings of new hires relative to incumbent workers in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing. We find that new hires in the manufacturing sector earn more than new hires in other industries and have...

Manufacturing has been one of the major bright spots in the economic recovery of the last few years, contributing more than 25 percent of the overall growth in GDP between 2009 and 2011 and adding roughly 500,000 new jobs between the beginning of 2010 and the end of 2012. This trend is especially welcome as manufacturing jobs often provide higher wages and better benefits than non-manufacturing...

The role of the manufacturing sector in the U.S. economy is more prominent than is suggested solely by its output or number of workers. It is a cornerstone of innovation in our economy: manufacturing firms fund most domestic corporate research and development (R&D), and the resulting innovations and productivity growth improve our standard of living. Manufacturing also drives U.S. exports and is...

This study assesses the widely-held belief that manufacturing industries are uniquely important to the process of national economic growth. The study’s related purpose is to describe structural changes in the U.S. manufacturing sector and the organization of U.S. manufacturing firms that are helping to determine the pace of economic growth and the creation of economic opportunity. Taken together...

This report on technology adoption patterns and performance characteristics in a sample of several thousand U.S. manufacturing plants sheds new light on the ways in which technology is associated with growth. The report summarizes a more detailed study to be released later that finds patterns of technology adoption to be enormously diverse. Nonetheless, dispersion of advanced technologies appears...

Previous research shows that both exporting and the use of advanced technologies independently enhance the performance of U.S. manufacturing plants in a variety of ways. The research presented below shows that plants that both export and use advanced technology outperform other plants in a number of important ways: they increase their employment more rapidly, they pay higher wages and they are...

Previous research shows that both exporting and the use of advanced technologies independently enhance the performance of U.S. manufacturing plants in a variety of ways. The research presented below shows that plants that both export and use advanced technology outperform other plants in a number of important ways: they increase their employment more rapidly, they pay higher wages and they are...