ABSTRACT
The American steel industry looms much larger in public policy discussions than its share of the overall economy might suggest. Once a large part of a growing U.S. manufacturing sector, steel now accounts for less than 0.4 percent of the gross domestic product and only 0.15 percent of the total U.S. workforce. Manufacturing has been in relative decline in the United States and other developed economies, but steel has declined even more than other industries. Many other manufacturing industries—computers, apparel, motor vehicles, or food processing, for example—account for a much larger share of manufacturing activity.
