U.S. Expects Good Year for Industry

U.S. industry will enjoy better growth in 1988 than 1987, with a decade-high 82% of all manufacturing companies benefiting from rising demand, a government report said Thursday.

The Commerce Department, in its annual listing of expected winners and losers among U.S. industries, predicted that computer manufacturers would enjoy the biggest jump in demand in 1988, while industries connected to the construction industry will turn in the poorest performance.

In all, industrial output is expected to rise by 2.4% in 1988, the sixth consecutive year of increase and up from an estimated growth of 2% in 1987.

The forecasts were made in the department’s “1988 U.S. Industrial Outlook,” a 650-page book that surveyed prospects for U.S. manufacturing and service industries.