Where are America's manufacturing jobs located? It's a timely question for policy makers, politicians, and other wonkish types. This interactive feature from the Brookings Institution provides interested parties with a way to explore the geography of manufacturing in the United States. The materials on the site are divided into eight sections, including Why It Matters, Basic Geography, Industry...

The Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders (M3) survey provides broad-based, monthly statistical data on economic conditions in the domestic manufacturing sector. Graphical summaries of current data and historical time series from 1958 to present are also available on site (.xls format). The Preliminary Report for June 1998 includes a 0.1 percent increase of new orders for manufactured...

Advanced data from the Second Quarter Financial Report for Manufacturing, Mining, and Trade Corporations indicate that manufacturing corporations' after-tax profits (seasonally adjusted) averaged 5.7 cents per dollar of sales for the second quarter of 1998, down 1.9 cents from the first quarter of 1998. The Census Bureau also reported that after-tax profits for the second quarter averaged 6.1...