See the press release from the Manufacturers alliance/MAPI Analysis: “Manufacturing Continues to Struggle”: “First-quarter 2003 figures show that 14 of the 28 industries tracked in the report had inflation-adjusted new orders or production above the level of one year ago, down from 17 industries in fourth-quarter 2002. Top industry performers recording double-digit growth were electronic computers, search and navigation instruments, industrial machinery, defense capital goods, photographic equipment, and communications equipment... Following a brief rebound from January 2002 to July 2002, the manufacturing sector fell into a double-dip recession from which it has yet to recover. As of April 2003, manufacturing production remained 7.1 percent below its peak.” By way of explanation, we offered the usual prattle about foreign competition, but also this interesting note: “A second major reason for the above-average job loss was that the booming economy in the late 1990s encouraged overbuilding of capital intensive industries in the United States and abroad...”
