<P> Manufacturing in the United States is a vital sector . Manufacturing jobs helped build out the U.S. middle class after World War 2, as the U.S. established pro-labor policies and faced limited global competition . Since the 1990s, several trends, such as the rise of China, globalized free trade, and supply chain innovation, have arguably resulted in the off - shoring of thousands of U.S. manufacturing facilities and millions of manufacturing jobs to lower - wage countries . Experts continue debating the merits of free trade versus protectionist positions, with job creation or preservation in the manufacturing sector an important topic in the 2016 U.S. presidential election . The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) forecast in October 2017 that manufacturing employment would fall from 12.3 million in 2016 to 11.6 million in 2026, a decline of 736,000 . As a share of employment, manufacturing would fall from 7.9% in 2016 to 6.9% in 2026, continuing a long - term trend . </P> <P> The U.S. manufacturing industry employed 12.4 million people in March 2017, generating output (nominal GDP) of $2.2 trillion in Q3 2016, with real GDP of $1.9 trillion in 2009 dollars . The share of persons employed in manufacturing relative to total employment has steadily declined since the 1960s . Employment growth in industries such as construction, finance, insurance and real estate, and services industries played a significant role in reducing manufacturing's overall share of U.S. employment . In 1990, services surpassed manufacturing as the largest contributor to overall private industry production, and then the finance, insurance and real estate sector surpassed manufacturing in 1991 . </P> <P> Since the entry of China into the World Trade Organization in December 2001, the decline in manufacturing jobs has accelerated . The U.S. goods trade deficit (imports greater than exports) with China was approximately $350 billion in 2016 . </P> <P> The Economist reported in January 2017 that manufacturing historically created good paying jobs for workers without a college education, particularly for men . Unions were strong and owners did not want to risk strikes in their factories due to large capital investments . Such jobs are much less available in the post-1990 era in the U.S. and other developed countries, leading to calls to bring those jobs back from overseas, establish protectionism, and reduce immigration . Manufacturing continues to evolve, due to factors such as information technology, supply chain innovations such as containerization, companies un-bundling tasks that used to be in one location or business, reduced barriers to trade, and competition from low - cost developing countries such as China and Mexico . </P>

History of manufacturing in the united states from 1900 to the present