It should surprise nobody to learn that the number of U.S. workers employed in manufacturing has been on the decline over the past decade, with annual employment dropping from 17 million in 1997 to just over 14 million in 2006. Those are the hard, fast numbers that the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics compiles, and for some industry observers, those are the only numbers that are relevant to a discussion of the future of manufacturing in the United States. But what exactly is manufacturing?
Source: Industry Week, http://industryweek.com