Reports Outline Challenges to U.S. Manufacturing Innovation

摘要

The recent performance of the U.S. manufacturing sector is impressive by many economic metrics. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reports that U.S. manufacturers generated $ 1.84 trillion in value-added revenue in 2011, a number that would make the U.S. manufacturing sector the world's tenth-largest economy in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). Productivity in manufacturing has also been on a steady increase, with output growing by some 55 percent over the 20-year span ending in 2011. Moreover, the BEA estimates that between 1998 and 2011 manufacturing productivity (excluding computers) grew at an average annual rate of 3.5 percent; the service sector grew by just 1.4 percent annually over the same time period.