Week 24 in Manufacturing News

Federal Reserve Officials Project Rate Increases in 2023; U.S. Opens $3 Billion Aviation Manufacturing Wage Subsidy Program; The Southwest Is Becoming a New Manufacturing Hub in U.S.; UK Manufacturing Growth Set to Double After Strong Covid Rebound.

Federal Reserve Officials Project Rate Increases in 2023

Federal Reserve officials signaled on Wednesday that they expected to raise interest rates from rock bottom sooner than they had previously forecast and that they were taking baby steps toward reducing their vast bond purchases — tweaks that, together, demonstrated their increasing confidence that the economy would rebound robustly from the pandemic.

Source: New York Times

U.S. Opens $3 Billion Aviation Manufacturing Wage Subsidy Program

The U.S. Transportation Department said Tuesday it had launched a $3 billion aviation manufacturing payroll subsidy program that will cover up to half of eligible companies’ compensation costs for as long as six months.

The program, funded by Congress, requires companies to commit to not conducting furloughs without employee consent or laying off employees covered by subsidies during the six-month period. Applications must be filed by July 13.

Source: Reuters

The Southwest Is Becoming a New Manufacturing Hub in U.S.

The traditional view of American manufacturing tends to focus on the Rust Belt or the Southeast. But a new report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) details how the Southwest has quickly become a hotbed for new manufacturing operations.

The analysis suggested the region’s cheap, available land, and relatively low cost of living — compared to eastern and Midwestern metro areas — helped draw more of the population into southwestern states, which provided an influx of young, tech-savvy talent that manufacturers in the area could draw from.

Source: Thomasnet

UK Manufacturing Growth Set to Double After Strong Covid Rebound

The UK’s manufacturing sector is expected to grow twice as fast in 2021 as forecast at the start of the year after an unexpectedly strong rebound in production as companies emerge from the worst of the pandemic. Make UK, which represents 20,000 companies across engineering, manufacturing and industrials, said that output volumes reported in the last quarter were at the highest level since its research began 30 years ago.

Source: Financial Times