MT Magazine November/December 2025

Unearthing a New Golden Age of US Manufacturing

U.S. manufacturing has entered a new age of prosperity, but will manufacturers maintain course to reach new heights, or fall into the trap of nostalgia for a mythologized past? BY CHRIS CHIDZIK PRINCIPAL ECONOMIST Lamentations about the decline of U.S. manufacturing have become so commonplace that they can be found anywhere from news reports and comedies to family tables and political debates. This isn’t new – the perception of the state of manufacturing has long centered on employment trends – but the pessimistic narrative has gained particularly wide traction over the last 45 years as manufacturing employment has fallen by 35% from its peak in June 1979. In fact, even as employment trended upward before that peak, doomsayers could already be found. A 1976 article in The New York Times expressed dismay at the prospect of manufacturing jobs being lost in favor of service sector work at the regional level.