Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization:
The 2008 Annual Revision
Figure 2. Industrial production: Market groups, January 1989-June 2008. The figure shows four panels; the data are plotted as curves. Ratio scale, 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 of consumer goods, final products and non-industrial supplies, construction supplies, and business supplies all increase a bit more than 50 percent from the 1990-91 recession through June 2008. Output for all of these categories fell during the two recessions, but the output of consumer goods was the least cyclical. The production indexes for consumer goods, for final products and non-industrial supplies, and for business supplies rose from the end of 2001 through 2007 but have edged down or flattened since then. The output of construction supplies has also risen since late 2001; however, this index peaked in 2005 and has fallen, on balance, since then.
The output of business equipment increased about 150 percent from 1989 to June 2008, 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 25 percent from 2000 to June 2008. The output of energy materials increased very slowly from 1988 forward, rising less than 15 percent in almost 20 years; the index shows a notable dip in late 2005, when Hurricane Katrina damaged a number of energy-related facilities on the Gulf Coast. 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. This index peaked in early 2008 and has fallen a bit since then; still, its level in June 2008 was more than double what it was in 1988.