Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17

Current Release PDF  ASCII RSS Data Download

Release Date: August 16, 2022
The annual revision to industrial production and capacity utilization was published on June 28, 2022. Data referred to in the release dated June 17, 2022, were superseded by the data issued at the time of the annual revision. Information on the annual revision to industrial production and capacity utilization appears below.

In July, total industrial production increased 0.6 percent. Manufacturing output gained 0.7 percent after having fallen 0.4 percent in each of the two previous months. The production of motor vehicles and parts rose 6.6 percent, while factory output elsewhere moved up 0.3 percent. The index for mining increased 0.7 percent, while the index for utilities decreased 0.8 percent. At 104.8 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in July was 3.9 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization moved up 0.4 percentage point in July to 80.3 percent, a rate that is 0.7 percentage point above its long-run (1972–2021) average.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Seasonally adjusted
Industrial production 2017=100 Percent change
2022 2022 July '21 to
July '22
Feb.[r] Mar.[r] Apr.[r] May[r] June[r] July[p] Feb.[r] Mar.[r] Apr.[r] May[r] June[r] July[p]
       
Total index 102.9 103.6 104.3 104.2 104.2 104.8 .7 .7 .7 -.1 .0 .6 3.9
Previous estimates 103.0 103.7 104.5 104.6 104.4   .8 .7 .8 .0 -.2    
       
Major market groups
Final Products 103.6 104.1 105.4 104.8 104.3 105.1 .8 .5 1.3 -.6 -.5 .7 3.6
Consumer goods 104.5 104.7 106.1 105.2 104.5 105.1 .2 .2 1.3 -.8 -.6 .6 2.4
Business equipment 95.3 96.4 97.3 97.1 96.8 97.4 2.0 1.2 1.0 -.3 -.2 .6 5.1
Nonindustrial supplies 102.8 102.8 103.1 103.1 102.7 103.2 1.5 .0 .3 .0 -.4 .5 4.5
Construction 105.8 105.2 105.0 105.2 104.3 105.3 2.0 -.6 -.2 .2 -.8 .9 5.0
Materials 102.3 103.4 103.7 104.0 104.5 105.0 .5 1.1 .3 .2 .5 .5 3.9
       
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below) 101.2 102.0 102.5 102.1 101.6 102.3 1.2 .8 .4 -.4 -.4 .7 3.2
Previous estimates 101.3 102.1 102.7 102.2 101.6   1.3 .8 .6 -.5 -.5    
Mining 108.5 112.1 112.1 113.1 115.3 116.1 -.5 3.3 .0 .9 2.0 .7 7.9
Utilities 107.5 103.1 106.8 107.0 106.7 105.9 -.8 -4.1 3.6 .2 -.3 -.8 2.2

Capacity utilization Percent of capacity Capacity
growth
Average
1972-
2021 		1988-
89
high 		1990-
91
low 		1994-
95
high 		 
2009
low 		 
2021
July 		   
2022 July '21 to
July '22
Feb.[r] Mar.[r] Apr.[r] May[r] June[r] July[p]
       
Total industry 79.6 85.2 78.8 85.0 66.6 78.2 79.4 79.9 80.3 80.1 79.9 80.3 1.3
Previous estimates             79.5 79.9 80.4 80.3 80.0    
       
Manufacturing (see note below) 78.2 85.6 77.3 84.7 63.4 77.8 79.2 79.8 80.1 79.7 79.3 79.8 .7
Previous estimates             79.3 79.9 80.3 79.8 79.3    
Mining 86.3 86.2 84.3 88.6 78.9 83.6 83.9 86.3 85.9 86.3 87.7 88.0 2.5
Utilities 84.7 92.9 84.5 92.9 78.0 74.8 76.5 73.2 75.7 75.7 75.3 74.5 2.6
       
Stage-of-process groups
Crude 85.5 87.9 84.8 90.0 76.9 83.8 83.4 85.5 85.2 85.5 86.8 87.0 1.7
Primary and semifinished 80.1 86.5 78.0 87.8 63.5 77.0 79.4 78.9 79.6 79.2 78.7 79.0 .7
Finished 76.7 83.3 77.5 80.7 66.4 77.3 78.0 78.7 79.1 78.8 78.4 78.9 1.5
[r] Revised. [p] Preliminary.
Market Groups

The indexes for most market groups increased in July. The index for durable consumer goods advanced 3.5 percent, boosted by a gain of 6.5 percent for automotive products that outweighed losses for appliances, furniture, and carpeting (2.6 percent) and for home electronics (0.9 percent). The output of nondurable consumer goods moved down 0.3 percent, as the index for consumer energy products declined 1.5 percent; the output of non-energy consumer nondurables edged up. Business equipment, construction supplies, and business supplies registered gains of less than 1 percent, while defense and space equipment posted an advance of 1.5 percent. The output of non-energy materials rose 0.8 percent, driven by a jump of 3.7 percent for durable consumer parts; the output of energy materials edged up.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output rose 0.7 percent in July and was 3.2 percent above its year-earlier level. The indexes for durable and nondurable manufacturing increased 1.3 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively, while the output of other manufacturing (publishing and logging) rose 0.4 percent.

Within durable manufacturing, motor vehicles and parts posted the largest gain (6.6 percent), but fabricated metal products, aerospace and miscellaneous transportation equipment, and miscellaneous manufacturing all recorded gains of more than 1 percent; losses of more than 1 percent were registered by electrical equipment, appliances, and components and by furniture and related products. Within nondurable manufacturing, gains for apparel and leather, for chemicals, and for plastics and rubber products countervailed declines for most other industries.

Mining output rose for the third consecutive month, increasing 0.7 percent, and was 7.9 percent above its year-earlier level. The improvement in July resulted from gains in coal mining and in oil and gas well drilling and servicing. The decrease of 0.8 percent for utilities reflected declines for both electric utilities and natural gas utilities.

Capacity utilization for manufacturing increased 0.5 percentage point in July to 79.8 percent, 1.6 percentage points above its long-run average. The operating rate for mining rose 0.3 percentage point to 88.0 percent, 1.7 percentage points above its long-run average. In contrast, the operating rate for utilities fell 0.8 percentage point to 74.5 percent and was 10.2 percentage points below its long-run average.

Release Dates for 2023

In 2023, the G.17 release on Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization will be published at 9:15 a.m. on January 18, February 15, March 17, April 14, May 16, June 15, July 18, August 16, September 15, October 17, November 16, and December 15.

Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

The Federal Reserve Board issued its annual revision to the indexes of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity utilization on June 28, 2022. New annual benchmark data for manufacturing for 2020 were incorporated, as well as other annual data, including information on the mining of metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels). The updated IP indexes included 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 were changed. Any modifications to the methods for estimating the output of an industry affected the index from 1972 to the present.

Capacity and capacity utilization were 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:

Back to Top
Last Update: August 16, 2022