SUMMARY

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, these changes comprise the new face of American manufacturing.

Manufacturing and National Economic Growth

Washington, DC - The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economics and Statistics Administration today released two new reports: one that defines and measures the size and scope of the green economy and another that looks at the ways in which the American economy's greenhouse gas emissions have changed over the past decade. Together, they provide valuable analytic tools needed to understand the emerging green economy, quantify greenhouse gas emissions and help inform future policy decisions.

Washington, DC – A U.S. Department of Commerce report released today confirms the importance of exports to the U.S. economy and the increasingly globalized marketplace. According to Exports Support American Jobs, in 2008, exports accounted for a record 12.7 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), and during a period of relatively flat job growth across the economy, supported a record number of jobs – more than 10 million.