The Wall Street Journal reports that manufacturing output was up slightly in September, but it goes on to note that:
Industries used 77.4% of their capacity in September, up from 77.3% in August. Capacity utilization has barely budged during the recovery, climbing just 1% from the same time a year ago.
In other words, there is still a lot of capacity (labor included) that isn’t being used to its full potential. However, manufacturing is far from being the only industry with excess capacity at the moment, and these findings indicate that it is still a vital industry in the US.
Eagle Technologies Group is an industry leader in the design and installation of Factory Automation Systems worldwide.