Nearly 5 million manufacturing jobs and more than 91,000 plants have been lost since 1997: Change in number of manufacturing establishments (actual), and change in manufacturing employment (thousands), 1997–2018

Change in number of establishments (total of all years=91,403) Change in employment, in thousands (total of all years=4,729,000)
1998 -578 297
1999 -3,835 -269
2000 -3,606 -66
2001 -4,712 -364
2002 -6,665 -1495
2003 -8,155 -722
2004 -4,904 -434
2005 -2,231 -18
2006 -1,447 -55
2007 -2,849 -244
2008 -5,943 -311
2009 -13,551 -1451
2010 -11,283 -755
2011 -5,515 222
2012 -2,938 223
2013 -4,220 101
2014 -4,056 121
2015 -2,129 192
2016 -999 33
2017* -782 50
2018* -1,005 216

*Establishment estimates for 2017 and 2018 are from analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns data for 2016–2018, compared with U.S. Census Bureau Business Dynamics Statistics data for 1997–2016.

Note: Each bar shows change since previous year.

Sources: Employment numbers: EPI analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Employment Statistics establishment employment data. Establishment numbers: EPI analysis of U.S. Census Bureau Business Dynamics Statistics data for 1997–2016 and U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns data for 2016–2018.

View the underlying data on epi.org.