What’s Ahead for Manufacturing in 2021?

OMA Connections Partner Plante Moran has published this summary of trends likely to impact middle-market manufacturers in 2021 and beyond. The firm writes: “We’re starting off the new year with a sense of tempered optimism.”

Meanwhile, Chad Moutray, the chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers, reported this week that U.S. manufacturing production increased 0.9% in December, rising for the eighth straight month. He said manufacturing production fell 6.5% on average in 2020, but “output should rise by the same percentage in 2021.”

In Ohio, manufacturers employed approximately 668,500 individuals as of November, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — a decline of roughly 30,000 jobs from a year earlier. 1/19/2021