The USA has lost a lot of manufacturing jobs over the past few decades and for a while the number of jobs was dropping drastically. But it now looks like in the past few years that the losses are leveling off.
Here are the total # of manufacturing jobs in the us (in thousands):
1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
17,225 | 17,045 | 16,947 | 16,190 | 15,056 | 14,306 | 14,117 | 14,044 | 13,974 |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilc6DZ3C0olQwp3-DiEEhevUGvxrfr2qVJ1OiXN4H9knP1HSVzI4xcCGTYVX43qaV42wj9rdNJkytbwsNxj1-9xla5EmvxrVdKcJbOtuwk-ZpwLebozapjmlx6OhQ4sR5bc_yD3Qq5To0/s320/manuf-jobs.jpg)
From 1998 to 2003 we had a -16.9% decline in manufacturing jobs or -3.7% annually. But then from 2003 to 2006 the decline in manufacturing jobs slowed to -2.3% or -0.7% annually.
Source of information is the Bureau of of Economic Analysis Full-Time and Part-Time Employees by Industry