This Chart May Stun You (Or Not)

The statistics covering American manufacturing are complex. American manufacturing is by many metrics doing great. It's American manufacturing jobs which have declined steeply. That's a result of international competition but even more automation. Most of us know this broad story. What most don't know is how recent the drop is.

Earlier today TPM Reader JL flagged this chart. Today explain the numbers, the measure is jobs measured by thousands of persons. So in 1980, the number starts at just under 20 million manufacturing jobs. What you see is that that number declines somewhat but remains relatively stable from until about 2000. It falls sharply during the first Bush administration (the era of the dot com bubble burst). Then it stabilizes and drops precipitously during the 2008 economic crisis....
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/this-chart-may-stun-you-or-not