Manufacturing Profits and Profit Margin

Profits for U.S. manufacturing firms reached $135.3 billion in QIV last year, the highest amount of profits ever recorded in a single quarter for America's manufacturers, and surpassing the previous record of $127 billion in QII 2007 before the recession started (see top chart above). The after-tax profit margin for U.S. manufacturers also reached an all-time time of 9.1%, at least for the data the Census Bureau has available going back to 1999 (see bottom chart above).

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