Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17
Current Release PDF ASCII RSS Data Download
Industrial production declined 0.6 percent in October. Manufacturing output fell 0.7 percent. Much of this decline was due to a 10 percent drop in the output of motor vehicles and parts that was affected by strikes at several major manufacturers of motor vehicles—the index for manufacturing excluding motor vehicles and parts edged up 0.1 percent. The index for utilities decreased 1.6 percent, and the output of mines increased 0.4 percent. Total industrial production in October was 0.7 percent below its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization moved down 0.6 percentage point to 78.9 percent in October, a rate that is 0.8 percentage point below its long-run (1972–2022) average.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Industrial production | 2017=100 | Percent change | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 | 2023 | Oct. '22 to Oct. '23 |
|||||||||||
May[r] | June[r] | July[r] | Aug.[r] | Sept.[r] | Oct.[p] | May[r] | June[r] | July[r] | Aug.[r] | Sept.[r] | Oct.[p] | ||
Total index | 102.9 | 102.3 | 103.3 | 103.3 | 103.4 | 102.7 | -.2 | -.6 | .9 | .0 | .1 | -.6 | -.7 |
Previous estimates | 102.8 | 102.3 | 103.3 | 103.3 | 103.6 | -.3 | -.5 | 1.0 | .0 | .3 | |||
Major market groups | |||||||||||||
Final Products | 101.8 | 100.6 | 101.8 | 102.0 | 101.7 | 100.8 | -.6 | -1.2 | 1.2 | .2 | -.2 | -.9 | -1.8 |
Consumer goods | 102.8 | 101.0 | 102.4 | 102.6 | 102.4 | 101.2 | -.9 | -1.7 | 1.3 | .2 | -.1 | -1.2 | -2.0 |
Business equipment | 96.2 | 96.1 | 97.0 | 97.0 | 96.1 | 95.6 | -.5 | -.1 | .9 | .0 | -.9 | -.5 | -3.0 |
Nonindustrial supplies | 100.0 | 99.9 | 100.1 | 100.2 | 100.5 | 100.3 | -.2 | -.2 | .3 | .1 | .3 | -.2 | -1.9 |
Construction | 101.8 | 101.2 | 101.2 | 100.5 | 101.3 | 101.5 | -.1 | -.5 | .0 | -.7 | .8 | .2 | -1.9 |
Materials | 104.9 | 104.6 | 105.6 | 105.5 | 105.8 | 105.1 | .1 | -.3 | 1.0 | -.1 | .3 | -.6 | .6 |
Major industry groups | |||||||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 99.8 | 99.1 | 99.5 | 99.5 | 99.7 | 99.0 | -.2 | -.7 | .4 | .0 | .2 | -.7 | -1.7 |
Previous estimates | 99.7 | 99.1 | 99.5 | 99.4 | 99.8 | -.2 | -.6 | .4 | -.1 | .4 | |||
Mining | 118.4 | 119.0 | 120.3 | 119.6 | 119.5 | 120.0 | -.3 | .6 | 1.0 | -.6 | .0 | .4 | 2.2 |
Utilities | 103.7 | 102.0 | 107.0 | 107.7 | 107.1 | 105.4 | -.6 | -1.6 | 4.8 | .7 | -.6 | -1.6 | 2.9 |
Capacity utilization | Percent of capacity | Capacity growth |
|||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Average 1972- 2022 |
1988- 89 high |
1990- 91 low |
1994- 95 high |
2009 low |
2022 Oct. |
||||||||
2023 | Oct. '22 to Oct. '23 |
||||||||||||
May[r] | June[r] | July[r] | Aug.[r] | Sept.[r] | Oct.[p] | ||||||||
Total industry | 79.7 | 85.2 | 78.8 | 85.0 | 66.6 | 80.6 | 79.5 | 78.9 | 79.6 | 79.5 | 79.5 | 78.9 | 1.5 |
Previous estimates | 79.5 | 78.9 | 79.6 | 79.5 | 79.7 | ||||||||
Manufacturing (see note below) | 78.2 | 85.6 | 77.3 | 84.6 | 63.4 | 79.5 | 78.2 | 77.6 | 77.8 | 77.7 | 77.8 | 77.2 | 1.3 |
Previous estimates | 78.1 | 77.6 | 77.8 | 77.7 | 77.8 | ||||||||
Mining | 86.4 | 86.3 | 84.3 | 88.6 | 78.9 | 92.1 | 92.6 | 93.2 | 94.3 | 93.8 | 93.8 | 94.3 | -.2 |
Utilities | 84.7 | 93.2 | 84.7 | 93.2 | 78.1 | 71.8 | 71.2 | 69.9 | 73.0 | 73.3 | 72.7 | 71.4 | 3.5 |
Stage-of-process groups | |||||||||||||
Crude | 85.6 | 87.9 | 84.8 | 90.0 | 76.9 | 89.9 | 90.5 | 90.9 | 91.6 | 91.4 | 91.8 | 92.2 | -.2 |
Primary and semifinished | 80.2 | 86.5 | 78.0 | 87.8 | 63.6 | 78.4 | 76.9 | 76.3 | 77.1 | 77.2 | 77.2 | 76.6 | 1.4 |
Finished | 76.7 | 83.4 | 77.5 | 80.7 | 66.3 | 78.2 | 77.1 | 76.1 | 76.6 | 76.4 | 76.2 | 75.2 | 2.1 |
Market Groups
The output of major market groups was mixed in October, with the drop in motor vehicles and parts output exerting downward pressure on a number of categories. The index for consumer durables dropped 5.8 percent, led by a 10.3 percent decrease in the index for automotive products, while the production of consumer nondurable goods edged up 0.1 percent. The output of business equipment moved down 0.5 percent because of a drop in the transit component. The index for defense and space equipment rose 1.7 percent in October, its 10th consecutive monthly increase. The index for construction supplies edged up 0.2 percent and business supplies moved down 0.4 percent. Within materials, the largest decline was in durable materials, which includes automotive parts.
Industry Groups
Manufacturing output dropped 0.7 percent in October and was 1.7 percent below its year-earlier level. The index for durable manufacturing slid 1.3 percent in October, and the index for nondurable manufacturing edged down 0.1 percent. Other manufacturing (publishing and logging) moved up 0.5 percent.
Within durable manufacturing, the output of motor vehicles and parts posted the largest decline (10 percent). Elsewhere, decreases were also seen in the indexes for primary metals (1.7 percent) as well as furniture and related products (1.4 percent), while the largest increases were recorded by computer and electronic products (1.9 percent) as well as electrical equipment, appliances, and components (1.5 percent). Within nondurable manufacturing, gains in the indexes for petroleum and coal products (2.2 percent) and paper (0.7 percent) were offset by declines in the indexes for plastics and rubber products (2.2 percent) and chemicals (0.6 percent).
Mining output moved up 0.4 percent in October and was 2.2 percent above its year-earlier level. The index for utilities, however, dropped 1.6 percent in October but was 2.9 percent above its year-earlier level.
Capacity utilization for manufacturing moved down 0.6 percentage point to 77.2 percent in October, a rate that is 1 percentage point below its long-run (1972–2022) average. The operating rate for mining increased 0.5 percentage point to 94.3 percent, a rate that is 7.9 percentage points above its long-run average. The operating rate for utilities decreased 1.3 percentage points to 71.4 percent, well below its long-run average.
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