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Industrial production (IP) moved down 0.1 percent in November after declining 0.4 percent in October. In November, manufacturing output rose 0.2 percent, boosted by a 3.5 percent increase in the index for motor vehicles and parts. The indexes for mining and utilities fell 0.9 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively. At 102.0 percent of its 2017 average, total IP in November was 0.9 percent below its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization stepped down to 76.8 percent in November, a rate that is 2.9 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2023) average.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary

Market Groups

The major market groups posted mixed results in November. The output of consumer goods was unchanged; the index for durable consumer goods rose, supported by gains in the output of appliances, furniture, and carpeting (3.4 percent) as well as automotive products (2.0 percent). Output in every category of nondurable consumer goods declined in November. The index for business equipment gained 1.2 percent, driven by a 5.1 percent increase in the index for transit equipment. Construction supplies and business supplies posted declines of 0.2 percent and 0.7 percent in November, respectively. The index for materials decreased 0.3 percent, as a 1.0 percent decline in the output of energy materials more than offset a 0.2 percent gain in the output of non-energy materials.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output moved up 0.2 percent in November but was 1.0 percent below its year-earlier level. In November, the durable manufacturing index gained 0.7 percent due to broad-based increases among durable categories, including in the output of motor vehicles and parts (3.5 percent) and machinery (2.1 percent). Despite the resolution of a work stoppage at a major civilian aircraft manufacturer early in November, the output of aerospace and miscellaneous transportation equipment declined 2.6 percent, largely because of declines in the manufacturing of aircraft parts. The nondurable manufacturing index declined 0.3 percent in November, led by decreases in the output of apparel and leather (2.1 percent), petroleum and coal products (1.6 percent), and paper (1.3 percent). Similarly, the index for other manufacturing (publishing and logging) fell by 1.0 percent.

Mining output decreased 0.9 percent in November after ticking down 0.1 percent in October. The index for utilities fell 1.3 percent in November, with declines in the indexes for both electric and natural gas utilities.

Capacity utilization for manufacturing inched up 0.1 percentage point in November to 76.0 percent, a rate that is 2.3 percentage points below its long-run average. The operating rate for mining decreased 0.7 percentage point to 88.8 percent, and the operating rate for utilities moved down 1.2 percentage points to 70.0 percent. The rate for mining was 2.3 percentage points above its long-run average, while the rate for utilities remained substantially 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

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