Economic Impact of the Internet Revolution: Manufacturing

Manufacturing -the procurement, transformation, and commitment to customers of physical goods -accounted for 18.5% of US GDP, employed 18.6 million people, and shipped $3.7 trillion worth of goods in 1996, the most recent year for which data are available. While manufacturing is large, however, it has often not been perceived as exciting or full of promise by communities, such as investors and pundits, who look for the 'new new thing.'. Recently however, this historically prosaic sector of the economy has become a focal point for Internet era excitement.