Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17

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Release Date: September 15, 2022
The annual revision to industrial production and capacity utilization was published on June 28, 2022. Data referred to in the release dated June 17, 2022, were superseded by the data issued at the time of the annual revision. Information on the annual revision to industrial production and capacity utilization appears below.

Industrial production decreased 0.2 percent in August. Manufacturing output edged up 0.1 percent after increasing 0.6 percent in July. The index for mining was unchanged, and the index for utilities decreased 2.3 percent. At 104.5 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in August was 3.7 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization declined 0.2 percentage point in August to 80.0 percent, a rate that is 0.4 percentage point above its long-run (1972–2021) average.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: Summary
Seasonally adjusted
Industrial production 2017=100 Percent change
2022 2022 Aug. '21 to
Aug. '22
Mar.[r] Apr.[r] May[r] June[r] July[r] Aug.[p] Mar.[r] Apr.[r] May[r] June[r] July[r] Aug.[p]
       
Total index 103.6 104.3 104.2 104.2 104.7 104.5 .7 .7 -.1 .0 .5 -.2 3.7
Previous estimates 103.6 104.3 104.2 104.2 104.8   .7 .7 -.1 .0 .6    
       
Major market groups
Final Products 104.1 105.5 104.8 104.4 104.9 105.1 .5 1.3 -.6 -.4 .5 .2 3.8
Consumer goods 104.7 106.1 105.3 104.5 104.9 104.7 .2 1.3 -.8 -.7 .3 -.2 2.2
Business equipment 96.4 97.3 97.0 96.8 97.4 98.1 1.2 .9 -.3 -.2 .5 .7 5.8
Nonindustrial supplies 102.8 103.1 103.1 102.4 102.9 102.8 .0 .3 .0 -.7 .6 -.2 3.5
Construction 105.2 105.0 105.2 104.1 104.9 104.3 -.6 -.2 .2 -1.0 .8 -.6 3.6
Materials 103.4 103.6 103.9 104.5 105.1 104.6 1.0 .3 .3 .5 .5 -.4 3.6
       
Major industry groups
Manufacturing (see note below) 102.0 102.4 102.0 101.5 102.1 102.2 .7 .4 -.4 -.5 .6 .1 3.3
Previous estimates 102.0 102.5 102.1 101.6 102.3   .8 .4 -.4 -.4 .7    
Mining 111.9 112.0 113.2 115.4 116.6 116.6 3.1 .1 1.1 1.9 1.0 .0 8.4
Utilities 103.1 106.8 107.0 107.4 106.1 103.6 -4.1 3.6 .2 .3 -1.2 -2.3 -1.6

Capacity utilization Percent of capacity Capacity
growth
Average
1972-
2021 		1988-
89
high 		1990-
91
low 		1994-
95
high 		 
2009
low 		 
2021
Aug. 		   
2022 Aug. '21 to
Aug. '22
Mar.[r] Apr.[r] May[r] June[r] July[r] Aug.[p]
       
Total industry 79.6 85.2 78.8 85.0 66.6 78.2 79.8 80.2 80.0 79.9 80.2 80.0 1.4
Previous estimates             79.9 80.3 80.1 79.9 80.3    
       
Manufacturing (see note below) 78.2 85.6 77.3 84.7 63.4 77.7 79.8 80.0 79.7 79.2 79.6 79.6 .8
Previous estimates             79.8 80.1 79.7 79.3 79.8    
Mining 86.3 86.2 84.3 88.6 78.9 83.9 86.1 85.9 86.4 87.8 88.4 88.1 3.1
Utilities 84.7 92.9 84.5 92.9 78.0 75.9 73.2 75.7 75.7 75.8 74.7 72.8 2.6
       
Stage-of-process groups
Crude 85.5 87.9 84.8 90.0 76.9 83.3 85.4 85.1 85.6 86.8 87.3 86.9 2.2
Primary and semifinished 80.1 86.5 78.0 87.8 63.5 77.4 78.8 79.5 79.2 78.6 78.9 78.3 .8
Finished 76.7 83.3 77.5 80.7 66.4 77.1 78.7 79.1 78.7 78.4 78.6 78.9 1.5
[r] Revised. [p] Preliminary.
Market Groups

The indexes for the major market groups were mixed in August. Modest losses were registered by consumer goods, construction supplies, and materials, while gains were posted by business equipment, defense and space equipment, and business supplies. The cutback for consumer goods was concentrated in consumer energy products, whereas the decline for materials was fairly widespread. The largest decrease among materials groups, 2.0 percent, was in consumer parts. Within business equipment, the largest increase came in information processing and related equipment.

Industry Groups

Manufacturing output moved up 0.1 percent in August and was 3.3 percent above its year-earlier level. The index for durable manufacturing was unchanged, the index for nondurable manufacturing rose 0.2 percent, and the index for other manufacturing (publishing and logging) edged down 0.1 percent. Within durables, gains of at least 1.0 percent were recorded by machinery, by computer and electronic products, by aerospace and miscellaneous transportation equipment, and by miscellaneous manufacturing. Losses of more than 1 percent were registered by wood products, by motor vehicles and parts, and by furniture and related products. Within nondurables, increases for petroleum and coal products, paper, and chemicals offset decreases for most other industries.

Mining output was unchanged in August after posting five consecutive monthly gains. The decrease of 2.3 percent for utilities reflected a decline for electric utilities moderated by a small increase for natural gas utilities.

Capacity utilization for manufacturing was unchanged in August at 79.6 percent, a rate that is 1.4 percentage points above its long-run average. The operating rate for mining fell 0.3 percentage point to 88.1 percent, while the operating rate for utilities fell 1.9 percentage points to 72.8 percent. Capacity utilization for mining was nearly 2 percentage points above its long-run average, but the rate for utilities remained substantially below its long-run average.

Revision of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization

The Federal Reserve Board issued its annual revision to the indexes of industrial production (IP) and the related measures of capacity utilization on June 28, 2022. New annual benchmark data for manufacturing for 2020 were incorporated, as well as other annual data, including information on the mining of metallic and nonmetallic minerals (except fuels). The updated IP indexes included revisions to the monthly indicator—either product data or input data—and to seasonal factors for each industry. In addition, the estimation methods for some series were changed. Any modifications to the methods for estimating the output of an industry affected the index from 1972 to the present.

Capacity and capacity utilization were revised to incorporate data for manufacturing through the fourth quarter of 2021 from the U.S. Census Bureau's Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization, along with new data on capacity from the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of Energy, and other organizations.

Note. The statistics in this release cover output, capacity, and capacity utilization in the U.S. industrial sector, which is defined by the Federal Reserve to comprise manufacturing, mining, and electric and gas utilities. Mining is defined as all industries in sector 21 of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS); electric and gas utilities are those in NAICS sectors 2211 and 2212. Manufacturing comprises NAICS manufacturing industries (sector 31-33) plus the logging industry and the newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishing industries. Logging and publishing are classified elsewhere in NAICS (under agriculture and information respectively), but historically they were considered to be manufacturing and were included in the industrial sector under the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. In December 2002 the Federal Reserve reclassified all its industrial output data from the SIC system to NAICS.

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Last Update: September 15, 2022