Texas Manufacturing

The outlook survey focuses on manufacturing because movements in this sector can be particularly useful for understanding changes in the general economy. Swings in business activity are often felt more quickly and more intensely in the manufacturing sector, which tends to be more cyclically sensitive than the total economy.

Texas is important to the nation’s manufacturing. The state produced $98 billion worth of manufactured goods in 2003, roughly 7 percent of the country’s output. Texas ranks second behind California in factory production and first as an exporter of manufactured products.

Texas turns out a large share of the country’s production of petroleum and coal products, reflecting the muscular refining industry. Texas also has nearly 10 percent of the nation’s output in computer and electronics products and nonmetallic mineral products, such as brick, glass and cement.