The early numbers are in for last year’s gross domestic product by industry, and manufacturing appears to have enjoyed a noticeable improvement.
The Commerce Department said Tuesday in its advance estimate of GDP by industry that real growth in manufacturing rebounded to 3.3 percent in 2006, up from 2.2 percent in 2005. The government said the improvement was largely the result of stronger real growth in durable-goods manufacturing, which came in at 6.7 percent last year versus 4.9 percent in 2005.
In 2006, durable-goods manufacturing made up 6.9 percent of economy, the Commerce department said, but accounted for 13.6 percent of real GDP growth.
The government noted that within the private goods sector, construction was the only industry to see slower growth last year, up 1.3 percent after 2005’s 3.9 percent increase.