Whitehouse.gov
The United States has been the leading producer of manufactured goods for more than 100 years, and the manufacturing sector is once again adding jobs and opening new factories at its fastest rate in two decades. The United States has long thrived as a result of its ability to manufacture
goods and sell them to global markets. Manufacturing drives knowledge production and innovation in the United States by supporting two‐thirds of private sector research and development and by employing the vast majority of U.S. scientists, engineers, and technicians to invent and produce new products. Yet, in the 2000’s, manufacturing faced major employment declines as factories were shuttered. U.S. strengths in manufacturing innovation and technologies that have sustained American leadership in manufacturing are under threat from new and growing competition abroad. More