Manufacturing is the industry that makes automobiles, books, clothing, furniture, paper, pencils, and thousands of other products. The word manufacture comes from the Latin words manus (hand) and facere (to make). Today, manufacturing means the making of articles by machinery as well as by hand.
Manufacturing plants have great importance to the welfare of their communities. When a factory hires 100 workers, for example, it also creates about 175 jobs outside the factory. These include jobs for people in restaurants, stores, and other businesses that provide the factory employees with goods and services.
Until the early 1900's, the greatest manufacturing centers were in western Europe. The United States became the leading manufacturing nation during World War I (1914-1918). Since then, the United States has ranked as the greatest producer of manufactured goods.
Manufacturing is an important industry in the United States and Canada. It earns about one-eighth of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States and about one-sixth of the GDP of Canada. GDP is the value of all the goods and services produced in a country within a given period. In the two nations, manufacturing employs about 17 million workers.
