Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization:
The 2006 Annual Revision
Figure 2 is titled "Industrial production: Market groups, January 1989-April 2007." The figure shows four panels; the data are plotted as curves against a ratio scale, with 2002 = 100. The panel in the upper left shows the indexes for consumer goods and for final products and nonindustrial supplies. The panel in the lower left shows the indexes for construction supplies and for business supplies. The panel in the upper right shows the indexes for defense and space equipment and for business equipment. The panel in the lower right shows the indexes for energy materials and for non-energy materials. All four panels show shaded regions for the 1990-91 and 2001 recessions, as defined by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Production indexes for consumer goods, final products and nonindustrial supplies, construction supplies, and business supplies all increased a bit more than 50 percent from the 1990-91 recession through April 2007. Output for all of these categories fell during the two recessions, but the output of consumer goods was the least cyclical. The output of business equipment increased about 150 percent from 1989 to April 2007, with only a small drop during the 1990-91 recession but a sizable drop during the 2001 recession. The output of defense and space equipment fell about 40 percent from 1989 through 2000 and then increased about 20 percent from 2000 to March 2007. The output of energy materials increased very slowly from 1988 forward, rising less than 15 percent over almost 20 years. Month to month, the index is generally stable, with the exception of late 2005 and early 2006, when output dropped as a result of Hurricane Katrina and subsequently recovered. The output of non-energy materials fell in both the 1990-91 recession and the 2001 recession, but it nearly doubled in the years between them and resumed increasing, although at a slower pace, after the latter recession. Its level in April 2007 was more than double what it was in 1988.