I pulled global employment data back to 1990 and normalized each country to its own all-time peak in manufacturing jobs (current jobs / all time high jobs). The animation shows how close (green) or far (red) each country is from its historical high, year by year. Things that stood out to me: the decline in the US and rise in China in the 2000s, the shift from China to rest of Asia in the 2010s, the shift from Western to Eastern Europe.





Posted by DataVizHonduran

13 comments

  4. Nice for central europe the loss of manufacturing coincides with the onset of our decade long stagnation. 

  5. Portugal’s industrialization was very short compared to most of Europe. We basically went from agricultural to manufacturing for a few years then straight to services

  7. Did manufacturing output reduce in industrialized countries? Or did the factories become automated?

    It would also be good if you could elaborate on what “Ratio vs. Peak” means.

  8. Red -> green -> going to middle color for China is inreresting.

  9. I, for one, have no desire at all to work in a factory. I’d rather buy cheap stuff from places where people still have to do that sort of thing.

  10. Would be interested to see this compared to manufacturing output.

  11. Interesting that there is no data for much of the Middle East

  13. This is to be expected IMO. Developing countries have weaker currencies, so exports are cheap and labor is cheap. Naturally, developed countries will seek to offshore menial jobs to focus their labor on more specialized and higher value-add manufacturing as their currency is stronger and purchasing power is greater. As a country moves from developing to developed, they start to do the same with their economy.

    I believe we will see the trend continue with China’s stagnation or reduction in manufacturing as their economy shifts and as they prepare to “replace” the US on the world stage.

    But, it’s important to note that the manufacturing just shifts instead of disappearing entirely. The US is the world’s second largest manufacturer of goods and almost produces as much as the EU. So the US still makes an insane amount of stuff. The US just produces chemicals, computers, electronics, machinery, aircraft, and other complex items instead of just raw materials and simple manufactured goods, and a lot of it is to continue fueling the US economy domestically instead of being exported to other countries.

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