Advanced Manufacturing: A New Policy Challenge

In 2016 the political system experienced significant disruption in part due to a working class voting block suffering from a long decline in American manufacturing, which became particularly acute in the decade of the 2000s. Manufacturing employment fell by one-third in this period, 64,000 factories closed, manufacturing capital investment and output suffered, and the productivity rate dropped. The U.S. had been systematically shifting production abroad, and experts began to realize as the next decade began that the decline in its production capability was starting to affect its innovation capacity — which had long been viewed as its core economic strength.