The Fact
U.S. manufacturing employment reached an all-time peak of about 19.6 million jobs in June 1979. By June 2019 it stood at about 12.8 million, a decline of roughly 6.7 million jobs, or 35% from the peak.
What This Means
A huge block of the industrial job market that existed around the time early Gen X was growing up did not simply move around—it became much smaller. BLS identifies trade liberalization, productivity gains, technological change, and recession losses among the mechanisms associated with the long decline.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Katelynn Harris, “Forty years of falling manufacturing employment,” Beyond the Numbers, 2020; Current Employment Statistics.