OK, so right now the stuff U.S. factories make is worth $twelve billion more than it did in 2010 --that's a 25% increase.
Those are hard clear numbers but for some reason the article's just full of mushy fuzz words like "activity" that's some how "grim" even though it's "..solidly above the level that would indicate another recession..."). Even more weird is how they say that their index of manufacturing employment's down when the actual number of manufacturing employees is at an all time high --it's at an 800 million increase since 2010. On top of that they totally leave out factory wages which are also at an all time high --$21.20 compared to $18.60 back in 2010.
Yeah, I know that everyone on the FR seems to really want to hear just bad things for the US, but eventually we've got to accept reality on its own terms and be willing to take the good with the bad.