Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization:
The 2006 Annual Revision
Figure 4 is titled "Industrial production: Selected high-technology industries, January 1998-April 2007." The figure contains one panel that shows the production indexes for communications equipment, computers, and semiconductors; the data are plotted as curves against a ratio scale, with 2002 = 100. The panel has a shaded region for the 2001 recession, as defined by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The output of semiconductors increased the most rapidly of the three series from 1998 to the present, and its current level is roughly twelve times the level at the beginning of 1998. The current levels of the output indexes for computers and communications equipment are both roughly two-and-a-half times the levels at the beginning of 1998. Production of communications equipment showed the sharpest drop during the 2001 recession, roughly 20 percent, and fell further during 2002. During the recession, the output of semiconductors fell about 8 percent, and the output of computers dipped less than 4 percent.
Note: For the NAICS categories of these industries, refer to the note to figure 3.