[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-324618-105":59,"doc-detail-324618-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":124,"head_meta":126,"extra_data":128,"updated_unix":130},105,"en","are-we-engineering-ourselves-out-of-manufacturing-jobs-the-productivity-boom-of-the-1990s","Are We Engineering Ourselves out of Manufacturing Jobs? - The Productivity Boom of the 1990s","","Analysis of employment declines in U.S. manufacturing contrasts with rising service-sector employment, asking whether productivity growth is engineering jobs away. A 2003 Washington Post example from General Motors motivates the discussion, followed by an examination of broader productivity trends from 1980–2000. The commentary reviews evidence that manufacturing productivity outpaced the overall economy and explores how detailed industry data links strong productivity gains in manufacturing to weak employment growth, potentially complicating simple productivity-employment explanations.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/are-we-engineering-ourselves-out-of-manufacturing-jobs-the-productivity-boom-of-the-1990s/324618/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/are-we-engineering-ourselves-out-of-manufacturing-jobs-the-productivity-boom-of-the-1990s/324618.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Violet","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-27","2026-09-21",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",11,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What question does the commentary raise about manufacturing employment?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"It asks whether manufacturing productivity growth is actually engineering workers out of jobs, especially given different employment trends between manufacturing and services.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How does manufacturing productivity growth in the 1990s compare with the overall economy?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"Manufacturing productivity growth rose more strongly than the economywide average, remaining above it even during the second half of the 1990s.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"Why does the analysis rely on detailed industry data rather than broad categories only?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"Broad sector measures can mask measurement difficulties and mixed categories, so using detailed NAICS industry codes helps refine understanding of productivity and employment links.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},324618,1790194366,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":24,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},4398048950312,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/400002538284de19e3c?_k=1778320343897328908","by Mark Schweitzer and Saeed Zaman  \nIhe manufacturing sector has seensharp declines in employment of late.These declines follow a decade in whichthe sector saw only a modest employ-ment drop,even as the service sectorexperienced double-digit increases inemployment.What accounts for thesedramatically difierent outcomes?Manyobservers point to productivity differ-ences as the explanation  \nA 2003 Washington Post article told thestory of how General Motors needednearly halfa million workers about aquarter-century ago to turn out five mil-lion automobiles a year.Today,the com-pany needsonly about aquarter of thatemployment level to produce the samenumber of cars.In fact,during the 20-year period from 1980 to 2000,U.S.manufacturing output nearly doubled,whereas manufacturing employmentremained flat.  \nAnecdotes like this one are common,and they lend credence to the notion thatdifferences in the productivity of themanufacturing and scrvice sectors are atthe center of the diffiering employmentexperiences.However,a closer look atmore detailed industry data reveals whythis conclusion may be misguided,andwhy an apparently straightforward rela-tionship between changes in productiv-ity and employment may be more com-plicated than it appears.In thisEconomie Commentary,we focus on theextent to which strong productivitygrowth in detailed manufacturing indus-tries is associated with weak employ-ment growth,and thus with generallyweakeremployment growth comparedto the service sector.  \n# Are We Engineering Ourselves out ofManufacturing Jobs?\n\n■ The Productivity Boom ofthe 1990s  \nDuring the 1990s,the United Statesexperienced a substantial boom in pro-ductivity growth,particularly in the lat-ter half of the decade.During the 1970sand 1980s,productivity growth in theoverall economy rose an average of  \n1.7 percent ayear,but this rate hadnearly doubled by the end of the 1990s.  \nManufacturing productivity growth roseeven more dramatically during the1990s.Figure I plots the annua growthrate of productivity in the manufacturingsector(red bars)and in the overall econ-omy (blue bars).(The nonfarm businesssector represents the overall economyand the manufacturing sector is a subsetofit.Most nonmanufacturing businessesin the nonfarm business sector are ser-vice-sector firms.)From 1990 to 1995.manufacturing productivity averaged  \n1.7 percentage points higher than theeconomywide average.Despite a strongincrease in overall productivity growthduring the second halfof the 1990s,productivity in the manufacturing sectorcontinued to trend 1.6 percentage pointsabove the economywide figure.  \nThe implication is that productivitygrowth in the larger service sector mustbe lower than in the manufacturing sec-tor.The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesnot actually make this calculation,partlybecause the nonmanufacturing remain-der of nonfarm businesses includes somecomplicated categories such nonfinan-cial,noncorporate businesses where pro-ductivity is difficult to measure reliably.Still,this has not prevented many ana-ysts from concluding that service-sectorindustries have had decidedly lower pro-ductivity growth,if any.  \nJanuary 1,2006  \nSince the 1970s,productivity growthin the manufacturing sector has out-paced the overall economy,yet thesector's share of the workforce hasdeclined dramatically.This leads us toask if we are in fact engineering our-selves out of jobs.This EconomicCommentary explores the relationshipbetween productivity and employmentand points out why this apparentlystraightforward relationship may bemore complicated than it appears.  \nOver the 1990s,service-sector firmsincreased employment 25 percent,whereas manufacturers lost about  \n2.4 percent of their collective employ-ment.Clearly,this aggregate result isconsistent with the story that greatermanufacturing productivity gains low-ered employment from what it wouldhave been otherwise.Indeed,if thedesired amount of output from a sectoris fixed,then productivity growth canonly come from employment ","cbCaibq2Nkm40NCA","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaibq2Nkm40NCA","pdf",1142145,"English","# Are We Engineering Ourselves out of Manufacturing Jobs?\n## The Productivity Boom of the 1990s\n## Productivity Growth in Detailed Industries","[{\"question\":\"What question does the commentary raise about manufacturing employment?\",\"answer\":\"It asks whether manufacturing productivity growth is actually engineering workers out of jobs, especially given different employment trends between manufacturing and services.\"},{\"question\":\"How does manufacturing productivity growth in the 1990s compare with the overall economy?\",\"answer\":\"Manufacturing productivity growth rose more strongly than the economywide average, remaining above it even during the second half of the 1990s.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the analysis rely on detailed industry data rather than broad categories only?\",\"answer\":\"Broad sector measures can mask measurement difficulties and mixed categories, so using detailed NAICS industry codes helps refine understanding of productivity and employment links.\"}]","Are We Engineering Ourselves out of Manufacturing Jobs? - The Productivity Boom of the 1990s | PDF",1789968412,13]