The United States, Japan Germany are the three countries with the strongest global manufacturing strength. Let's take the data from 2000 to 2017 as an example to see if the hollowing out of industry in the United States is serious.
First, look at Germany, which is a country founded on manufacturing, 2000~2017, Germany's manufacturing value added increased from $404.2 billion to $777.8 billion, an increase of 92%. Japan from 1.1 trillion dollars, grew to 1.22 trillion dollars in 2012, and then fell to the current 1.01 trillion dollars. 17 years, the size of Japan's manufacturing industry in place.
The size of Japan's manufacturing sector is not growing, and Germany is about to double in size. Then look at the situation in the U.S. In 2000, U.S. manufacturing value added was $1.55 trillion, rising to $2.17 trillion in 2017, a 40% increase.
From the above figures, the U.S. manufacturing sector is still growing. But it is the growth rate is not high, the average annual growth rate is about two point several percent. During the same period, the U.S. nominal GDP average annual growth rate of more than 3%. U.S. manufacturing accounted for the proportion of GDP is a downward trend. 2000 U.S. manufacturing accounted for the proportion of GDP for 15%, currently down to 11%. And the same period of Germany has been stabilized at about 20%.
From the manufacturing value added of GDP declining trend, there is indeed a hollowing out of the industry. Manufacturing growth rate is lower than that of the economy as a whole. This suggests that its manufacturing sector growth is weak. The reasons are many, including the impact of overseas imports, rising manufacturing costs, and so on.
But even so, the United States still dominates the top of the global manufacturing industry chain. In the U.S. manufacturing industry chain in the contraction, but his contraction is not directionless. Rather, it is a conscious contraction to the high value-added products, major influence in the field. For example, airplanes, automobiles, chips, military industry, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, medical equipment, and so on.
In the 2017 Global Manufacturing 500 list, the United States occupies 133 seats, topping all countries. The other two manufacturing powerhouses - Japan and Germany - had 85 and 26 respectively. The two countries combined do not have as many as the United States. As the world's largest manufacturing industry in China, there are only 76 companies in the global manufacturing 500, less than the United States and Germany.
If we stand on this point of view, the United States of America's industrial hollowing out is not serious. The size of the manufacturing industry ranked second in the world, with a large number of well-known enterprises in the manufacturing industry, this is an industrial hollowing out of the country's performance? Obviously not!
If the United States manufacturing output value accounted for the proportion of GDP, the United States manufacturing hollowing out has indeed been more serious, because the United States manufacturing value added accounted for the proportion of GDP is only 11.4%, in the world this proportion belongs to the low level of it, in contrast, China's manufacturing value added accounted for the proportion of GDP is as high as 29.4%.
But we also know that the United States is a mega-economy, with a GDP of more than $20 trillion, ranking first in the world, and even though the value added by the U.S. manufacturing sector accounts for only 11.4% of GDP, it is still very large in terms of scale.The value added by the manufacturing sector in 2018 was $2.33 trillion, second only to China ($4 trillion), which is solidly the second largest in the world.
Manufacturing is the cornerstone of modern civilization, embodying advanced human "craftsmanship" and " science and technology", representing the most advanced human productivity! Without a strong manufacturing industry, a country can be a rich country, but it will never become a strong country. Although the hollowing out of the United States industry is relatively serious, but in the field of high-end manufacturing, the United States has been firmly in their own hands, and has not been transferred overseas with the transfer of industry. The United States still has absolute technological advantage in the first camp of global manufacturing powerhouse. Most of the industries that the U.S. has transferred overseas are low-value-added, low-tech, low-end manufacturing industries.
In fact, the United States also attaches great importance to the development of the manufacturing industry, such as the Obama period of "re-industrialization", and now Trump's "manufacturing reflux" plan. Revitalization of the manufacturing industry in the United States is a very strong public opinion base.