Since 2000, 2.6 million manufacturing jobs have been
lost nationwide. Reduced business investment and a significant decline
in exports due to the high value of the U.S. dollar were compounded
by increased competitiveness from some low-wage countries. Manufacturing
job losses began in August 2000 and continued for 3½ years,
unaffected by the national economic recovery that began in November
2001. By 2004, however, some manufacturing industries—wood
and nonmetallic mineral products used in new home construction,
for example—added jobs.
In the face of this national decline in manufacturing employment,
more than one in every four (28.5 percent) nonmetro counties depends
on manufacturing for its economic base. That is, these counties
derived at least 25 percent of annual average proprietor and employee
earnings from manufacturing during 1998-2000, and thus are classified
as manufacturing-dependent in the 2004
ERS County Typology.
Manufacturing-dependent counties lost manufacturing jobs at roughly
the same rate as all other counties during the steepest declines
between 2001 and 2002, the latest year for which county-level data
are available. Among nonmetro counties, manufacturing employment
declined by 6.18 percent in manufacturing-dependent counties and
by 5.83 percent in all other counties. Metro areas posted steeper
declines of 7.41 percent for manufacturing-dependent and 7.61 percent
for all other counties.
In terms of overall employment, counties not dependent on manufacturing
were able to post small gains in total employment between 2001 and
2002. In manufacturing-dependent counties, growth in other sectors
was not sufficient to maintain employment levels, which fell 0.61
percent in nonmetro counties and 0.81 percent in metro counties.
Manufacturing-dependent
counties are clustered in the Midwest and Southeast. This concentration
of manufacturing activity may create economies of scale and scope
that could support job growth. Additionally, many nonmetro manufacturing-dependent
counties have larger populations than other nonmetro counties and
tend to be adjacent to large metro areas—two factors that
may hasten job growth.
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