Capital Spending Survey 2021: Assemblers Gear Up for Recovery
With the pandemic subsiding and consumer spending on the rise, manufacturers are investing in their assembly operations.
In February 2020, U.S. manufacturers employed nearly 12.8 million people. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. In an instant, the country lost 1 million manufacturing jobs as governments and businesses scrambled to figure out how best to stop the spread of the disease.
Alas, the pandemic is still with us, but the outlook is brighter. Some 59 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against the virus. As of Nov. 15, the seven-day moving average of new deaths from COVID was 1,110. That’s nearly a third of the average at the pandemic’s peak—3,645 on Jan. 13, 2021—but it’s still more than seven times the average at the pandemic’s low point, 144 on July 11, 2021.