Manufacturing Plays Smaller Role In Driving U.S. Economic Growth

U.S. manufacturing still expanded over 2011 but contributed less to the nation's economic growth than the previous year, putting added pressure on the services sector to drive the economy's recovery and prevent the U.S. from falling back into recession.

Factory output made up 0.5 percentage point of the 1.7 percent rise in gross domestic product, the Commerce Department reported Friday, according to Bloomberg News. That compares to 1.2 percent points of a 3 percent rise in 2010.

Observed economist Ryan Sweet of Moody's Analystics, Inc.: “We definitely need the recovery to broaden ... There are signs that manufacturing is starting to slow. We’re going to see manufacturing contribute less to growth this quarter.”

Some growth is better than no growth, however.

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