What Are The Main Things The USA Still Produces? Answers May Surprise You
What are the main things the USA still produces? You probably have asked this question. If you ask a random group of people on the street, you will probably hear that the United States no longer manufactures anything.
Author:Paolo ReynaReviewer:James PierceMay 28, 202326K Shares566.1K Views
What are the main things the USA still produces? You probably have asked this question. If you ask a random group of people on the street, you will probably hear that the United States no longer manufactures anything.
They might say that China, Mexico, and Vietnam have taken all of the factories, and that the only jobs that are left in the United States are jobs such as cleaning hotel rooms and flipping burgers.
It appears that the country that used to produce everything is on the verge of producing nothing. In January, 207,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in the United States, the largest one-month drop since October 1982. Factory activity in the United States is at a 28-year low. Even before the recession, plants were losing work to low-cost foreign competitors. And some businesses were shifting production overseas.
However, manufacturing in the United States is far from dead or dying. It is moving upmarket, chasing the highest profits and becoming more efficient, much like Henry Ford did when he invented the assembly line to manufacture the Model T automobile.
By far the world's leading manufacturer in terms of value of goods produced is the United States. In 2007, it reached a record $1.6 trillion, nearly doubling the $811 billion of 1987. The United States generates $2.50 for every $1 of value produced in Chinese factories.
Made In The U.S.A.
While some companies are considering bringing jobs back to the United States, some brands never left. 24/7 Wall St. compiled a list of ten well-known American brands that are still manufactured in the United States.
Consumers are familiar with all of the products. While most are market leaders, what distinguishes them is that their competitors manufacture their products elsewhere – or they are the only game in town.
Just because a company's product made the list doesn't mean it hasn't used foreign labor. Companies like 3M and Whirlpool employ thousands of people outside of the United States.
However, some products are still manufactured in the United States by these companies. Several companies on the list, such as Oreck Corp. and Weber-Stephen, have products manufactured in the United States, but not every component used to make the product was made in the United States.
These are some surprising products still made in America.
Motorcycles
Among the many reasons Harley-Davidson (HOG) - Get Free Report owners are proud is that the motorcycles are designed and manufactured in the United States. In 1901, William Harley, a young Milwaukee resident, devised the idea of combining a small engine with a bicycle frame.
After much trial and error, Harley and his friends Arthur and Walter Davidson created a prototype of what would later become the modern motorcycle. Harley and the Davidsons established the Wisconsin factory that still serves as Harley-corporate Davidson's headquarters today in 1906.
While bragging about its American workforce, the company has been fighting the import market for decades. It unsuccessfully lobbied for a 40% tax on imported motorcycles in 1952, but in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan imposed a five-year tariff plan in response to the company's complaints about Japanese imports.
That 1983 plan raised the tariff on Japanese imports with engines larger than 700 CCs from 4.4% to 49.4%, gradually decreasing back down to 4.4% year after year.
Sporting Goods
No sport embodies Americana like baseball, and fans will be pleased to learn that the classic Louisville Slugger baseball bat, which is used by roughly 60% of all Major League Baseball players, is manufactured in the United States.
The bat's 120-year history begins in the 1880s with a 17-year-old named John A. "Bud" Hillerich, whose father owned a woodworking shop in Louisville, Ky.
According to the company's official history, Hillerich was attending a game played by the Louisville Eclipse in 1884 when its star player, mired in a hitting slump, broke his bat. The young man offered to carve a new bat for the player; after a three-hit game the next day, word spread throughout the team, and orders for bats began to come in quickly.
Kitchen Equipment
Many kitchen appliances are still being developed in the United States. Since 1941, KitchenAid mixers have been manufactured in Greenville, Ohio, at a factory that employs nearly 700 people.
The mixer predates the plant by several decades. Introduced in 1919, the product saw a significant increase in sales in 1955, thanks to a variety of color options. Today, the mixers, which have a distinctive silhouette that is actually trademarked, are available in 40 different colors.
Building on the success of its iconic mixer, the company has expanded into a wide range of kitchen equipment, including dishwashers, cookware, ranges, refrigerators, and even wine cellars, the majority of which are manufactured in the United States, as are many (but not all) of the products sold by its parent company, Whirlpool.
Guitars
Nothing says "rock and roll" like an electric guitar. The Gibson Guitar Co., founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1896, invented the electric guitar in 1936. Gibson is well-known for its signature Les Paul edition, which has been used by rock stars ranging from Jimmy Page to Paul McCartney.
The Kalamazoo plant closed in 1984, and the company relocated to Nashville, where 500 employees handcraft up to 2,500 Les Pauls, Flying Vs, Explorers, SGs, and Firebirds per week. The Tennessee factory also produces other models and custom-made guitars.
Toys And Crayons
Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith invented Crayola Crayons after winning a gold medal at the 1900 World's Fair for their dustless chalk substitute for teachers.
Although Crayola has overseas production facilities, domestic crayons are still made in Easton, Pa., at a factory that has produced more than 1 billion crayons since its inception in 1969. Aside from crayons, there are some American-made children's items that aren't cobbled together in Chinese factories.
Silly Putty was created in the United States and is still manufactured in Easton, Pennsylvania. The Slinky is also made in Pennsylvania, in the cheery-sounding town of Hollidaysburg. Vermont Teddy Bear, as the name suggests, creates furry friends in Burlington, Vermont.
Guns
The rest of the world may have a technological advantage, but Americans can always stick to their guns. Smith & Wessonundefined is the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States, with additional facilities in Maine and Tennessee.
Chopsticks
In a role reversal, the United States' surprisingly successful export has been chopsticks to China. Georgia Chopsticks, based in Americus, Ga., is the only manufacturer of the ancient wooden utensils in the United States.
Cars
Given the global marketplace, it is difficult to assign a specific "nationality" to the vast majority of automobiles. Almost every car on the road is a multinational conglomeration of parts and labor. Every year, Cars.com publishes its "American-Made Index," a list of vehicles built in the United States with at least 75% domestic parts.
People Also Ask
What Is USA Known For Producing?
Aircraft, machines, equipment, and semiconductors are examples of these. Government farm subsidies benefit soybean, meat, poultry, and corn production the most.
Is There Still Manufacturing In The Us?
Manufacturing is the main economic engine and primary employer in approximately 500 US counties today, and the industry employs a larger-than-average proportion of the overall population in those communities.
What Is America's Number 1 Industry?
The services sector which employs the most number of people, with the professional and businesses service sector providing employment to nearly 17.4 million, closely followed by healthcare and social assistance which employs just over 17 million people.
Final Words
Manufacturing provided more than a third of civilian jobs in the United States during World War II, but that share has declined to only 8.7% in 2015. A factory employs only one out of every eleven people. Retail, health care, professional and business services, as well as leisure and hospitality, now employ more people than manufacturing.
The decline in manufacturing jobs may give the impression that America has deindustrialized, but this is not the case. America still produces a lot of goods, but the number of jobs has decreased because it no longer requires nearly as many workers as it once did.
Paolo Reyna
Author
James Pierce
Reviewer
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