Industrial production in the U.S. fell in May for the 16th time in the last 17 months, reflecting declines in consumer goods and business equipment that signals the manufacturing slump remains broad-based.
Output at factories, mines and utilities decreased 1.1 percent last month, in line with forecasts, after falling a revised 0.7 percent in April, Federal Reserve data showed today in Washington. The amount of industrial capacity in use dropped to a record-low 68.3 percent.
It's bad enough that the U.S. needs to export a lot more to earn its way out of this recession. This data shows that we're not even close to producing what we'll need. Some negatively inclined pundits claim the U.S. doesn't manufacture anything anymore after having outsourced some of its old-school smokestack industrial base to China. That's only partly true; the third wave of the Industrial Revolution will come when manufacturers of things like carbon nanotubes come to the fore.
Until then, we're left with these depressing, bearish stats.
