America's Dying Industries: Report

Some industries just may not have what it takes to survive today's changing economic climate.

Technological advances, offshore manufacturing and shifts in American behavior are all factors in the downfall of some major U.S. sectors, according to a recent report from research firm IBISWorld, called "Dying industries." Indeed, with corporate profits and job gains on the rise recently, it seems the fallout from the Great Recession may no longer be solely to blame for recent declines in revenue for some industries, according to the report.

But for one the of the sectors on the list the recession has dealt a huge blow. The money market and other banking industry, which includes banks owned by non-financial institutions and private banks, was hit hard by the financial crisis. Too small to be included in TARP, these banks had to use commercial banking structures to get access to any bailout funds.

Another struggling industry, manufacturing, has been suffering more from outsourcing than from the financial crisis. Manufacturing has struggled in a number of areas including women's wear and costumes largely because companies are moving plants offshore, the Washington Post reports. Indeed, 70 percent of 2.3 million jobs lost or displaced to China from 2001 to 2010 were in the manufacturing industry, the Economic Policy Institute estimates. Women's wear manufacturing has suffered especially, with revenue declining 57.7 percent since 2002, IBISWorld reports.

But it's photofinishing that may be in the worst trouble, as consumers are increasingly able to take photos with a variety of devices. The sector's revenue shrank 11.4 percent each year over the past decade, according to the report, and in January, iconic film company Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, Facebook's $1 billion acquisition of photo-sharing service Instagram this week may be further proof that the local 1-hour photo developer could soon be little more than a Kodak moment lost in the annals of obsolescence.

Here are the ten industries closest to death, according to IBISWorld:

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• 10. Shoe/Footwear Manufacturing

  <strong>Revenue decline 2002 to 2012:</strong> -39.6 percent <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2012 (in millions):</strong> 1,712.1 <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2017 (in millions):</strong> 1564.0

• 9. Hardware Manufacturing

  <strong>Revenue decline 2002 to 2012:</strong> -39.9 percent <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2012 (in millions):</strong> 7,484.7 <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2017 (in millions):</strong> 6,636.8

• 8. Appliance Repair

  <strong>Revenue decline 2002 to 2012:</strong> -44.5 percent <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2012 (in millions):</strong> 3,684.5 <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2017 (in millions):</strong> 3478.9

• 7. Costume/Team Uniform Manufacturing

  <strong>Revenue decline 2002 to 2012:</strong> -49.9 percent <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2012 (in millions):</strong> 986.7 <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2017 (in millions):</strong> 889.6

• 6. Women's/Girls' Apparel Manufacturing

  <strong>Revenue decline 2002 to 2012:</strong> -57.7 percent <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2012 (in millions):</strong> 8,603.5 <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2017 (in millions):</strong> 8,273.7

• 5. Newspaper Publishing

  <strong>Revenue decline 2002 to 2012:</strong> -48.1 percent <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2012 (in millions):</strong> 29,302.9 <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2017 (in millions):</strong> 23,699.3

• 4. DVD, Game And Video Rental

  <strong>Revenue decline 2002 to 2012:</strong> -49.6 percent <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2012 (in millions):</strong> 5,894.0 <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2017 (in millions):</strong> 2801.1

• 3. Money Market And Other Banking

  <strong>Revenue decline 2002 to 2012:</strong> -51.2 percent <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2012 (in millions):</strong> 834.4 <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2017 (in millions):</strong> 799.3

• 2. Recordable Media Manufacturing

  <strong>Revenue decline 2002 to 2012:</strong> -53.6 percent <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2012 (in millions):</strong> 4,144.9 <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2017 (in millions):</strong> 3311.5

• 1. Photofinishing

  <strong>Revenue decline 2002 to 2012:</strong> -70.1 percent <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2012 (in millions):</strong> 1,509.1 <strong>Industry revenue forecast for 2017 (in millions):</strong> 897.1

Comments

[Julius Penny]

03:40 PM on 04/13/2012

As long as Americans buy sub-standard products from China, we will continue to lose our industries.

[Julius Penny]

03:37 PM on 04/13/2012

Thank you Obama. You sure have doen a whiz bang job. Keep up the good work!

[dmspeech]

07:01 PM on 04/15/2012

Oh, please

[demilieu]

01:36 PM on 04/13/2012

For years, shoe reparis here have been sent down to Mexico and then returned up north here to Texas.

[demilieu]

01:20 PM on 04/13/2012

I was at a table for dinner last night with five people, all around 50, all with college degrees. One from Penn State , one from Rice, Vassar and Notre Dame. I didn't get the last college. In total, our collective length of employment for the past 3 years was about 5 weeks.

Education is not the issue. The issue is a lack of opportunity. There are not enough jobs for the 15 million people who got laid off over the course of the recession.

[Julius Penny]

03:38 PM on 04/13/2012

I am an accountant. I got laid off. I begin building fences, painting, whatever. There is work it is just not work many people want to do. Do the old "jobs Americans don't want to do". You also may have to move if you live in a depressed state.

[MexicanDude]

03:26 PM on 04/20/2012

I agree with Julius here. A friend of mine - highly skilled software guy, 15+ years experience but during the 2008 crisis he was working at Best Buy selling computers at very low wages because he couldn't find a job. Did that make him think less of himself? No, he started his own company and just recently finally became a millionaire because he sold his startup. Not without blood, sweat and tears.

So you do what you gotta do. This guy lost his job many times since the dot-bomb, but never let himself get comfortable enough to go past 2-3 months unemployment, and kept thinking of cool things to do and to try at night while waiting for new customers at the BB. Next thing you know you're your own boss.

[OKBLUESKY]

07:27 AM on 04/13/2012

The article is somewhat misleading. Some of the industries have been replaced with better technology.

Although vacuum tubes are still made and used not many are sorry to see the evolution of active devices in our consumer electronics.

Manufacturing is coming back in the US. The US in terms of dollars is still the largest manufacturer in the world.

Things change. Adapt or die. Or just become irrelevant.

[Robert SF]

12:29 PM on 04/13/2012

None of those industries have been replaced here in this country. Forget the dollars; it's the jobs. Even if manufacturing returns to this country, it will employ a lot fewer people than before, AND THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE.

[demilieu]

01:29 PM on 04/13/2012

Most times when any new technology comes around, people find themslves out of a job. And yes, for example, all those auto industry welders laid off in the 1970's when robot welders came on-line eventually just died.

[Hardy Blacklord]

07:23 AM on 04/13/2012

"I will NEVER own foreign-made tools. They break in a week."

I only buy German made tools. Gedore, Hezet,... 10x better than American made tools, 50x better than Chinese made tools.
For power tools, I buy only Hilti (German) and Makita (Japanese). Everything else is just toys.

[demilieu]

01:29 PM on 04/13/2012

Black n' Decker-made in China!

[Hardy Blacklord]

07:03 AM on 04/15/2012

Blackndecker is rubbish, not even close to Hilti or Makita.

[Julien Henry]

12:56 AM on 04/13/2012

I think the first thing we should do is not reward these companies for moving jobs overseas, and they should be required to pay every penny of tax benefit that they had received....

[wtf is this]

11:01 PM on 04/12/2012

No surprise on manufacturing or anything techy. We've given that away.
But appliance maintenance? Does that mean we just replace rather than fix? Not liking the idea for shipping my fridge to china for repair.

[demilieu]

01:32 PM on 04/13/2012

Service calls are $65 just to show up, then $60 an hour labor plus parts (at a 100% mark-up). It is cheaper to just replace.

[To Tall Jones]

09:15 AM on 04/14/2012

@wtf is this...Yes, most everything in our society is tossed out and replaced with new. Microwaves are cheap, you could probably buy a new one for less than having an old one repaired. Same with refrigerators I remember several years ago, I bought a refrigerator from Sears, it went bad after about a year and a half. I had an extended warrantee, Sears sent a service tech, after the tech checked it out, he said, it would cost more for him to repair the fridge and he recommended just getting a new one. Since it was under warrantee it did't cost me anything for a new refrigerator. Most everything in our society is meant to be thrown away, not repaired.

[mjdloc157]

08:37 PM on 04/12/2012

Thats life as times change some companys will fold and others take thier place, who would have thought 15 years ago that Apple would be the biggest Corperation in the world , we can't keep making stagecoachs or horse shoes just to keep someones job

[Robert SF]

12:32 PM on 04/13/2012

Then how do we produce enough jobs for everyone that needs work?

Apple only employs about 40,000 people in the US, almost all of them making less than $15/hour at an Apple Store. And like you said, Apple is the world's biggest corporation. Where are the 15 million unemployed Americans going to find work? We would need 375 Apple Corporations!

[demilieu]

01:14 PM on 04/13/2012

Maybe in NY and California they make $15 an hour. But not in Texas. And most other places. More like $7.35.

[MexicanDude]

03:41 PM on 04/20/2012

As of Dec 12, Apple employed 41K people worldwide. 14K of that are in the US, and those are evenly distributed between engineering/product and stores (meaning about 7K engineers) (Source: Bloomberg).

The way a free economy creates work is by those people unemployed making companies. It doesn't matter what the companies do, as long as they are created. Back to the example of apple, the ecosystem they created employs another 40K people worldwide in iOS development as of 2010, I believe about half in the US.

The takeaway of this is that when you invent or create something (anything at all, even a basic company that paints houses or whatever), you create an ecosystem that requires support and creates outflows that support others, like a mesh network. That's the only "economic stimulus" that is lasting. The government can't do this part for us, it never has and never will. But if some those of those who need jobs start building companies again, then we may get there.

[demilieu]

01:32 PM on 04/13/2012

The horse still needs and wants shoes though! Someone has to do it!

[Thomas Bradley]

08:09 PM on 04/12/2012

I'm so spoiled by my digital cameras. When my underwater version sprung a leak in Hawaii while I was snorkeling, I purchased a cheapo underwater camera that uses old-school film to get my fish pics. My first thought was, "Great, now I need to find a place that still develops film."

[demilieu]

01:33 PM on 04/13/2012

try Canada?

[Chunkylover54]

07:55 PM on 04/12/2012

i used to work in film developing and when ever id get naked pics comming through you better believe id keep a copy

[UnRed]

07:41 PM on 04/12/2012

Obama might have the economy in recovery mode, but only just recently. Judging the past from the Bush-generated disaster of an economy and its aftermath and predicting forward -- as this article does -- is nothing more than, well, stupid.

Things ALWAYS look horrible during a bear economic cycle and as the economy recovers (like now). Only an idiot would extrapolate from that past ... OR someone trying to manipulate the unaware.

[motoGpifupleez]

06:51 PM on 04/12/2012

America makes weaponry and pornography, the only two industries that can thrive regardless of the economic situation.
The only thing America manufactures better than those two is false outrage.

[Blackspeare]

07:38 PM on 04/12/2012

Funny how those two go together-----this is my weapon and this is my gun one is for fighting and the other for fun!

[El Chingaso]

07:57 PM on 04/12/2012

Add booze, tobacco products, drugs and media silliness...

[sentimentiques]

08:42 PM on 04/29/2013

Yup, medical drugs that have dire side effects, but the manufacturers are making a tone of money; and the lawyers are going right along for the ride with lawsuits for wrongful deaths, etc.

[sgtpopeye]

06:48 PM on 04/12/2012

Get with the program, get an education, get a job, and all will be well. Dont expect to make a living pushing hamburgers, unless you libs want to raise the Min. wage to $20.00 per hour

[BBinMT]

07:26 PM on 04/12/2012

Yeah, it's that easy for everyone. Major dying industry? Conservatives admitting their economic policies got us to where we are now.

[French Toast]

08:05 PM on 04/12/2012

Your bumper sticker logic doesn't match up to reality. Typical conservative. "How hard could it be?" lazy thinking. You're probably on government assistance yourself. Oh wait. You're claiming to be a Sgt, aka a socialized profession.

[FlowerGypsy]

06:41 PM on 04/12/2012

You really have no idea how depressed I am about film becoming obsolete. I had to spend $9.99 just to get a camera developed. It's horrible/sad.