Heads rolled last year in American factories. According to Labor Department reports, U.S. manufacturing lost 1.3 million jobs in 2001. Many of those losses came when large manufacturers decided that mass layoffs of factory workers were needed to deal with the effects of the manufacturing slowdown.
Now, thank goodness, the worst of the bloodletting may be over. Leading indicators, including new factory orders and average manufacturing workweek, were turning up by late last year, pointing to a near-term end to the recession in 2002.