The manufacturing industry has significantly downsized, losing about 7 million jobs from 1979 to 2017, and now requires a more skilled workforce, with 56% of workers having postsecondary education. Key factors influencing this transformation include automation, globalization, and the shift towards a networked economy, leading to a decline in manufacturing employment and a greater reliance on service sectors. Despite recent challenges, manufacturing still offers quality jobs for workers without a bachelor's degree in many states, necessitating policy changes to strengthen the workforce and support innovation.

1. By: Anthony P. Carnevale, Neil Ridley, Ban Cheah,
Jeff Strohl, and Kathryn Peltier Campbell
June 13, 2019

2. Overview
• Downsizing: Once the powerhouse of the
industrial economy, manufacturing today plays a
smaller role in an economy dominated by
services—about 7 million manufacturing jobs
disappeared from the US workforce between 1979
and 2017.
• Upskilling: Manufacturing increasingly requires
workers with education beyond a high school
diploma—today, 56% of workers in the industry
have postsecondary education.
• Industry transformation: Automation,
globalization, and the growth of a networked
economy have contributed to these changes.
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3. Three trends have altered the
manufacturing industry
• Automation: The industry now has fewer workers, but more robots,
so output per worker has increased from $293,000 in 1979 to
$485,000 in 2017. Total manufacturing output has grown by more
than 60% since 1991.
• Globalization: Manufacturing job losses have accelerated as
international competition has increased. Since the 1960s,
international trade has more than tripled as a share of GDP, rising
from about 10% to almost one third of the economy.
• Networked economy: Growth of a more integrated, global
economy with an expanded role for business-to-business services
increased domestic outsourcing.
3 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

4. • Manufacturing’s share of employment fell from 22% in 1979 to 9% in 2017.
• Manufacturing employment will continue to decline in the next decade,
dropping by 2% or 253,000 jobs.
4 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
The manufacturing workforce has
downsized overall

5. • Downsizing and upskilling upended the structure of good jobs within manufacturing.
• Before 2005, workers with a high school diploma or less held the largest number of
good jobs in manufacturing.
• Workers with bachelor’s degrees greatly increased their number of good jobs from
2.8 million in 1991 to 3.6 million in 2016.
5 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
The remaining manufacturing labor
force has been upskilling

6. Services industries have replaced
manufacturing in the economy
6 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
• The production recipes for
materials, goods, and
services have changed
dramatically since the
early 20th century.
• These recipes depend
less on agricultural and
industrial production and
more on services,
especially finance and
professional and business
services.

7. • The industry is not the job generator that it used to be.
• But manufacturing is still the top provider of good jobs for workers without a
bachelor’s degree in 35 states.
7 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
Manufacturing still provides good jobs
in more than half of states

8. Policy Recommendations
• Support research and technology
development that enables firms to develop
innovative products and better processes.
• Bolster the ability of small- and medium-sized
manufacturers to compete in a global
marketplace.
• Build the manufacturing workforce of the
future by rethinking career and technical
education and apprenticeship programs.
• Improve existing worker transition programs
to provide comprehensive support for workers
who lose their jobs.
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cew.georgetown.edu/Manufacturing
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