Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17
Current Release PDF ASCII RSS Data Download
Total industrial production moved up 0.2 percent in May. Output has increased in every month of the year so far, with an average monthly gain of nearly 0.8 percent. In May, manufacturing output declined 0.1 percent after three months when growth averaged nearly 1 percent; the indexes for utilities and mining rose 1.0 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, in May. At 105.7 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in May was 5.8 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization edged up to 79.0 percent, 0.5 percentage point below its long-run (1972–2021) average.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Industrial production | 2017=100 | Percent change | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021 Dec.[r] |
2022 | 2021 Dec.[r] |
2022 | May '21 to May '22 |
|||||||||
Jan.[r] | Feb.[r] | Mar.[r] | Apr.[r] | May[p] | Jan.[r] | Feb.[r] | Mar.[r] | Apr.[r] | May[p] | ||||
Total index | 101.7 | 102.5 | 103.6 | 104.1 | 105.5 | 105.7 | -.2 | .8 | 1.0 | .5 | 1.4 | .2 | 5.8 |
Previous estimates | 101.7 | 102.6 | 103.6 | 104.5 | 105.6 | -.3 | .8 | 1.0 | .9 | 1.1 | |||
Major market groups | |||||||||||||
Final Products | 101.4 | 102.3 | 103.4 | 103.8 | 105.1 | 105.4 | -.3 | .9 | 1.1 | .4 | 1.3 | .3 | 5.7 |
Consumer goods | 100.4 | 101.7 | 102.3 | 102.3 | 103.5 | 103.6 | -.4 | 1.3 | .6 | .0 | 1.2 | .1 | 3.6 |
Business equipment | 96.0 | 95.6 | 97.3 | 98.7 | 99.9 | 100.1 | .0 | -.5 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 1.2 | .3 | 6.8 |
Nonindustrial supplies | 99.6 | 100.2 | 101.6 | 101.5 | 102.5 | 102.9 | -.5 | .6 | 1.4 | -.1 | 1.0 | .3 | 6.4 |
Construction | 104.8 | 103.8 | 106.1 | 105.4 | 106.0 | 106.2 | .4 | -1.0 | 2.3 | -.7 | .6 | .2 | 7.1 |
Materials | 102.7 | 103.5 | 104.3 | 105.1 | 106.7 | 106.9 | -.1 | .8 | .8 | .8 | 1.5 | .2 | 5.8 |
Major industry groups | |||||||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 100.4 | 100.3 | 101.6 | 102.4 | 103.2 | 103.1 | .0 | -.1 | 1.3 | .8 | .8 | -.1 | 4.8 |
Previous estimates | 100.4 | 100.3 | 101.6 | 102.5 | 103.2 | -.1 | -.1 | 1.3 | .8 | .8 | |||
Mining | 109.4 | 109.8 | 110.0 | 113.5 | 114.8 | 116.3 | .5 | .3 | .2 | 3.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 9.0 |
Utilities | 99.6 | 107.0 | 107.0 | 102.0 | 107.6 | 108.7 | -2.6 | 7.4 | .0 | -4.7 | 5.5 | 1.0 | 8.4 |
Capacity utilization | Percent of capacity | Capacity growth |
|||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Average 1972- 2021 |
1988- 89 high |
1990- 91 low |
1994- 95 high |
2009 low |
2021 May |
||||||||
2021 Dec.[r] |
2022 | May '21 to May '22 |
|||||||||||
Jan.[r] | Feb.[r] | Mar.[r] | Apr.[r] | May[p] | |||||||||
Total industry | 79.5 | 85.2 | 78.8 | 85.1 | 66.6 | 75.3 | 76.4 | 76.9 | 77.6 | 77.9 | 78.9 | 79.0 | .8 |
Previous estimates | 76.4 | 76.9 | 77.6 | 78.2 | 79.0 | ||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 78.1 | 85.6 | 77.3 | 84.7 | 63.5 | 75.7 | 77.1 | 77.0 | 78.0 | 78.6 | 79.2 | 79.1 | .3 |
Previous estimates | 77.1 | 77.0 | 78.0 | 78.6 | 79.2 | ||||||||
Mining | 85.9 | 86.0 | 83.8 | 88.3 | 78.3 | 75.5 | 77.7 | 77.7 | 77.7 | 80.0 | 80.7 | 81.5 | 1.0 |
Utilities | 84.8 | 93.1 | 84.6 | 93.2 | 78.0 | 72.3 | 70.7 | 75.8 | 75.7 | 72.1 | 75.9 | 76.4 | 2.4 |
Stage-of-process groups | |||||||||||||
Crude | 85.2 | 87.7 | 84.6 | 89.7 | 76.5 | 77.4 | 77.8 | 77.9 | 78.3 | 80.3 | 80.9 | 81.4 | .9 |
Primary and semifinished | 80.0 | 86.5 | 78.1 | 87.9 | 63.5 | 74.3 | 75.3 | 76.4 | 77.5 | 76.8 | 78.2 | 78.3 | .8 |
Finished | 76.8 | 83.4 | 77.5 | 80.7 | 66.5 | 75.6 | 77.3 | 77.4 | 77.7 | 78.5 | 79.3 | 79.2 | .4 |
Market Groups
Gains for most major market groups were small in May: Consumer goods, business equipment, construction supplies, business supplies, and materials all posted increases of less than 1/2 percent. Within consumer goods, gains were recorded by durables and energy products, while a loss was registered by non-energy nondurables. Within business equipment, advances of about 1 percent for transit equipment and for information processing equipment were partly offset by a decline of nearly 1/2 percent for industrial and other equipment. Within materials, an increase of 1.4 percent in energy materials outweighed a decrease of 0.6 percent in non-energy materials.
Industry Groups
Manufacturing output slipped 0.1 percent in May; even so, the index has advanced 4.8 percent over the past 12 months. In May, the index for nondurable manufacturing moved up 0.1 percent, while the indexes for durable manufacturing and for other manufacturing (publishing and logging) each moved down 0.2 percent. Among durables, the largest drops were in wood products and machinery, with declines of 2.6 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. Among nondurables, an increase of 2.5 percent in petroleum and coal products outweighed decreases of less than 1 percent in food, beverage, and tobacco products; paper; and printing and support.
May was the third consecutive month with gains of more than 1.0 percent in mining; over that period, the index for oil and gas extraction has averaged increases of 2.0 percent per month. Mining output has advanced 9.0 percent over the past 12 months. Unseasonably warm weather in May boosted the demand for air conditioning and lowered the demand for heating; the output of electric utilities gained 1.9 percent, while the output of natural gas utilities stepped back 4.5 percent.
Capacity utilization for manufacturing edged down in May to 79.1 percent, 1.0 percentage point above its long-run average. The operating rate for mining was 81.5 percent (4.4 percentage points below its long-run average), while the operating rate for utilities was 76.4 percent (8.4 percentage points below its long-run average).
Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
The Federal Reserve Board plans to issue its annual revision to the indexes of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity utilization at noon (EDT) on June 28, 2022. New annual benchmark data for manufacturing for 2020 will be incorporated, as well as other annual data, including information on the mining of metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels). The updated IP indexes will include revisions to the monthly indicator—either product data or input data—and to seasonal factors for each industry. In addition, the estimation methods for some series may be changed. Any modifications to the methods for estimating the output of an industry will affect the index from 1972 to the present.
Capacity and capacity utilization will be revised to incorporate data for manufacturing through the fourth quarter of 2021 from the U.S. Census Bureau's Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization, along with new data on capacity from the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of Energy, and other organizations.
Note. The statistics in this release cover output, capacity, and capacity utilization in the U.S. industrial sector, which is defined by the Federal Reserve to comprise manufacturing, mining, and electric and gas utilities. Mining is defined as all industries in sector 21 of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS); electric and gas utilities are those in NAICS sectors 2211 and 2212. Manufacturing comprises NAICS manufacturing industries (sector 31-33) plus the logging industry and the newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishing industries. Logging and publishing are classified elsewhere in NAICS (under agriculture and information respectively), but historically they were considered to be manufacturing and were included in the industrial sector under the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. In December 2002 the Federal Reserve reclassified all its industrial output data from the SIC system to NAICS.G.17 Release Tables:
- Summary: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
- Chart 1: Industrial Production, Capacity, and Capacity Utilization
- Chart 2: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
- Chart 3: Industrial Production of Selected Industries
- Table 1: Industrial Production: Market and Industry Groups (percent change)
- Table 2: Industrial Production: Special Aggregates and Selected Detail (percent change)
- Table 3: Motor Vehicle Assemblies
- Table 4: Industrial Production Indexes: Market and Industry Group Summary
- Table 5: Industrial Production Indexes: Special Aggregates
- Table 6: Diffusion Indexes of Industrial Production
- Table 7: Capacity Utilization: Manufacturing, Mining, and Utilities
- Table 8: Industrial Capacity: Manufacturing, Mining, and Utilities (percent change)
- Table 9: Industrial Production: Gross Value of Products and Nonindustrial Supplies
- Table 10: Gross-Value-Weighted Industrial Production: Stage-of-Process Groups
- Table 11: Historical Statistics for IP, Capacity, and Utilization: Total Industry
- Table 12: Historical Statistics for IP, Capacity, and Utilization: Manufacturing
- Table 13: Historical Statistics for IP, Capacity, and Utilization: Total Industry excluding Selected High-Technology Industries
- Table 14: Historical Statistics for IP, Capacity, and Utilization: Manufacturing excluding Selected High-Technology Industries
- Table 15: Industrial Production: Reliability Estimates