Friday / Weekend Open Lines


Friday, October 2nd. U.S. based manufacturers receive new orders every month worth close to a half-trillion dollars. To underscore the health and prospects of this economic sector, today is the fourth annual Manufacturing Day, with activities staged across the country by American companies. The focus is a series of open houses to show the breadth and vitality of American manufacturing innovation and quality, and illustrate the need for skilled employees. Currently, over 11 million Americans work in this sector. The 2012 Economic Census found over 297,000 manufacturing establishments in the U.S., doing nearly $5.7 trillion of annual business. The economic census, the most comprehensive survey of our economy, is taken at five-year intervals and dates back in several forms to the year 1810. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.

Saturday, October 3rd. The nature of American neighborhoods began to take on a new look this week in 1947. That’s when one of the first planned communities built by a real estate developer opened and began receiving its new residents — Levittown, in New York. Named for William and Alfred Levitt, the town ultimately contained more than 17,000 Cape Cod and ranch houses, snapped up by servicemen returning from World War II and facing an acute housing shortage. The houses in Levittown had 800 square feet of floor space and sold for under $8,000. Now, Levittown has a population of about 52,000, with a median home value of almost $365,000. That’s nearly twice the national median home value of $176,700. You can find more statistics on communities across the country by downloading the Census Bureau’s “dwellr” mobile application at <www.census.gov/mobile>.

Sunday, October 4th. October is American Cheese Month, a celebration of the many varieties of the dairy product. America is the world’s cheese superpower, producing 26 percent of the world’s supply. The nations of the European Union combine to produce 9.6 million metric tons of cheese annually. However, U.S. production of over 5.6 million metric tons exceeds that of the combined second to fourth place producers —Germany, France and Italy. America’s annual cheese consumption averages almost 33 and half pounds per capita. A full third of this figure is accounted for by mozzarella, likely attributable to our appetite for pizza. Big Cheese is formed in America by 561 production establishments. Employing over 43,000 workers, cheese captures a $43 billion a year slice of the economy. Profile America is in its19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.