Author Archives: admin

The Clothes We Buy

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The decline of apparel manufacturing in the United States is an interesting development and outcome of globalization over the last decade or two. It is estimated currently that only 2% of apparel purchased in the United States is made in the United States.

Today’s market size is the value of imported apparel and accessories into the United States in 2002 and 2012.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2002 and 2012
Market size: $62.31 and $81.19 billion respectively
Source: “U.S. International Trade Statistics,” (315 Apparel and Accessories), a searchable database presented by the Census Bureau and available online here.
Original source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census
Posted on May 6, 2013

Plastic Surgery

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Procedures that fall under the umbrella of plastic or cosmetic surgery include minimally intrusive procedures such as laser hair removal and injections of Botulinum toxin or collagen. They also include more extensive, often reconstructive procedures that are necessary to restore a person after an accident, animal bite, or surgery to remove a tumor, for example.

Today’s market size is the number of, and estimated total spent on, cosmetic surgical procedures performed in the United States in 2012. This includes all surgical procedures but does not include the minimally-intrusive procedures such as chemical peels, laser hair removal nor soft tissue filling procedures. In terms of spending, cosmetic surgeries make up 55.6% of the total spent on all cosmetic procedures and in terms of number of procedures, surgeries account for 10.9% of all procedures.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2012
Market size: 1,594,526 surgeries valued at $6.12 billion
Source: 2012 Plastic Surgery Statistics Report, “2012 Average Surgeon/Physician Fees,” American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 2013, page 20, available online here.
Posted on May 3, 2013

World Labor Force

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LaborForce

On the first day of May, International Labor Day, we thought it only right to report on the world labor force. The graph shows, as a red line, the number of people in the labor force worldwide from 1990 through 2011. These data come from the World Bank which defines the labor force as follows:

Total labor force comprises people ages 15 and older who meet the International Labour Organization definition of the economically active population: all people who supply labor for the production of goods and services during a specified period. It includes both the employed and the unemployed. While national practices vary in the treatment of such groups as the armed forces and seasonal or part-time workers, in general the labor force includes the armed forces, the unemployed, and first-time job-seekers, but excludes homemakers and other unpaid caregivers and workers in the informal sector.

The labor force is, of course, a subset of the overall population and so we’ve included world population on the graph, as well as labor force participation rates, annually. Over the period 1990–2011 the labor force participation rate has actually declined, slightly, from 66.32% to 64.18%. Yet the labor force has grown at a faster rate than has population overall, 39.3% for the participation rate versus 31.4% for world population. Growing longevity is part of the reason for this seeming divergence.

To labor and laboring, within or outside the official labor force!

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2011
Market size: 3.26 billion.
Source: “Labor Force, Total,” part of a data set maintained by The World Bank and available online here. World population data are from the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2011).
Original source: The United Nations and The World Bank Group
Posted on May 1, 2013

Psychiatric Hospitals

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A great deal of attention is paid to the health care industry and its remarkable rates of growth. However, one segment of that industry has not experienced growth, has in fact shrunk. That segment is psychiatric hospitals. Because of changing policies and attitudes about how the mentally ill should be treated, psychiatric hospitals have been on a steady decline for many decades in the United States. The number of beds available in psychiatric hospitals in 1955 was equal to 1 bed for every 300 people in the general population. In 2005, that number had fallen to 1 bed for every 3,000 people.

Yet the rate of serious mental illness in the society has not changed during the fifty years between these two measures. This means that many, many mentally ill people end up incarcerated and/or, when they reach a breaking point, in the emergency rooms of general hospitals. According to a 2007 report from the National Health Policy Forum, there were nearly 2 million admissions to general hospitals in 2004 of patients suffering from mental health problems. Clearly, demand for some important things is not met through the mechanisms of a free market.

Today’s market size is the number of beds available in psychiatric hospitals in the United States in 2005.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2005
Market size: 99,800
Source: “More Mentally Ill Persons Are in Jail and Prison Than Hospitals: A Survey of the States,” a report published by the National Sheriffs Association and the Treatment Advocacy Center, May 2010, available online here. Eileen Salinshy and Christopher Loftis, PhD, “Shrinking Inpatient Psychiatric Capacity: Cause for Celebration or Concern?” National Health Policy Forum, August 1, 2007.
Posted on April 30, 2013

Garage Storage and Organization

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Products purchased to help organize the garage constitute the fastest growing segment of the home storage and organization market. In recent years, the garage has become more than just a place to park cars. Only 35% of garages made to fit at least two cars have room for more than one. While many homeowners use their garage for storage, there’s a growing segment of the population that use their garage as an extension of their home — installing granite floors, wide-screen televisions, and state of the art sound systems.

Data show the projected size of the garage storage and organization market in the United States in 2015. That year, the total home storage and organization market is expected to reach $9 billion, which means that the garage segment will represent nearly a fifth of the total market. Managing all of our stuff has become a real job and for some, a business.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2015
Market size: $2 billion
Source: Jayne O’Donnell, “Garages Can Be a Man – Or Woman – Cave,” Detroit Free Press, April 21, 2013, available online here.
Original source: Freedonia Group
Posted on April 25, 2013

Açaí Berries and Superfoods

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The açaí berry is native to the Amazon rainforest and in particular to Brazil. It is a berry that has high quantities of phytochemicals, plant compounds that are believed to protect us from a variety of ills, from heart disease to cancer. Through heavy marketing of the berry as a sort of miracle cure, a market for this fruit was created and grew rapidly, reaching a high in 2009.

The açaí berry is what is often called a superfood, a category of foods that are nutrient dense, thus rich in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients while having few calories. So-called superfoods that are new to the U.S. market appear to follow a somewhat predictable cycle. They become the hyped new health food. Demand for them rises sharply and they ride this tide. Then they begin a decline as their high prices are balanced against the consumer’s experience with them and the promise of a new, heavily marketed superfood. Worth noting is the fact that blueberries are very nearly as rich in polyphenols as are açaí berries yet they are priced at a fraction of the price of açaí berries.

Today’s market size is an estimate of the total value of açaí-laced products sold in the United States in 2012.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2012
Market size: $200 million
Source: Tom Philpott, “Farm to Fable,” Mother Jones, May/June 2013, page 68
Posted on April 23, 2013

Petroleum Product Imports from Egypt

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Petroleum from Egypt

The graph to the right shows crude oil and petroleum product imports to the United States from Egypt, from 1993 through 2012. The trade in petroleum products is one that is strongly influenced by geopolitical concerns. The rise in imports from Egypt into the United States in 2012 may well be seen, at least in part, as an attempt by the United States to help stabilize that country after its revolution of 2011.

Egypt’s domestic consumption of its fuel has been rising steadily for decades as its population increased rapidly. Consequently, its exports of petroleum products (from crude oil to fuel ethanol) declined. However, when one of its major industries, tourism, was devastated by the upheavals of 2011 and continued political unrest in wake of the revolution, Egypt has been forced to increase exports in other areas as much as possible in order to meet its foreign currency debt payment obligations.

Today’s market size is the number of barrels of crude oil and petroleum products imported by the United States from Egypt, in 2012.

Geographic reference: United States and Egypt
Year: 2012
Market size: 11.44 million barrels, or 0.29% of all such imports into the United States that year.
Source: “U.S. Imports by Country of Origin,” a detailed statistical presentation on “Petroleum & Other Liquids,” dated March 15, 2013, published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The table is available online here.
Original source: U.S. Energy Information Administration
Posted on April 18, 2013

Trade Books

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The Association of American Publishers (AAP) tracks the sales of its members. It has had an increasingly difficult task in tracking sales over the last decade or so, as the industry deals with dramatic changes in distribution networks (bookstores), in the product itself (print versus digital) and in the rise of self-publishing. The AAP report on 2012 sales shows a 7.4% improvement in the sale of trade books over 2011. Trade books are defined as those intended for general readership and are sold through a general retail outlet—whether fiction or nonfiction, print or e-book, and/or brick-and-mortar stores or online sales. The total value of trade book sales in 2012 was, however, far short of that reached in 2007, the peak year for sales during the first decade of the new century.

Today’s market size is based on the sale of trade books, published by the large and middle-sized American book publishers—AAP members—in 2007 and 2012.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2007 and 2012
Market size: $8.53 billion and $6.53 billion respectively
Source: “Today’s Lunch: Weak December Doesn’t Spoil 2012 Trade Gain of 7.4 Percent,” article in the April 11, 2013, Publishers Lunch newsletter. Access to the newsletter’s website is here. The data on 2007 sales comes from “Association of American Publishers 2009 S1 Report — Estimated Book Publishing Industry Net Sales 2002-2009,” available online here.
Original source: Association of American Publishers
Posted on April 12, 2013

Craft Beers

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Beer consumption and median age of population

While the overall U.S. consumption of beer, measured in terms of per capita consumption, has been declining steadily since the 1980s, as can be seen in the graphic, the craft beer market has been doing quite well. Craft beers are those made by brewers whose annual production is less than 6 million barrels, who use traditional methods of brewing and are independently owned. The number of craft brewers in the United States has risen from 1,753 in 2010 to 2,403 in 2012 and craft brewers in 2012 accounted for 6.5% of the overall beer market by volume and 10.2% by value of sales.

The graph presents per capita beer consumption in the Untied States from 1966 through 2012 with a red line showing the median age of the U.S. population.

Today’s market size is based on sales of craft beer in the United States in 2012, by volume and value. In volume terms, the craft beer market grew by 15% between 2011 and 2012 and by value, it grew by 17%.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2012
Market size: 13.24 million barrels (410.44 million gallons) valued at $10.2 billion.
Source: “Craft Brewing Facts,” Brewers Association, March 18, 2013, available online here. The graphic comes from Patricia J. Bungert and Arsen J. Darnay, editors, Encyclopedia of Products & Industries — Manufacturing, Figure 19, page 96, Gale Cengage Learning, 2008, updated here with data cited above from the Brewers Association’s website.
Original source: Brewers Association and U.S. Census Bureau
Posted on April 10, 2013

Cloud Computing Services

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In recent years more and more companies have been putting their data “in the cloud.” There are 625 million subscribers to cloud document storage services. That number is expected to reach 1.3 billion in 2017. Cloud computing service companies allow users to store data on the service provider’s remote servers from which users can access that data from anywhere using Internet-based software and a computer or mobile device. While this can be a cost-saving measure for companies, securing the data on public servers is still a concern. After recent high-profile security breaches at such companies as Nasdaq, LinkedIn, and Twitter, many cloud service companies have invested in tighter security systems for their servers.

Today’s market size data show the amount of revenue from public clouds in 2011 and projected revenue for 2016. Currently, 25% of all business information globally is held on servers that are part of what is referred to as the cloud.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2011 and a projection for 2016
Market size: $19.4 billion and $206.6 billion respectively
Source: Steve Johnson and Scott Davis, “In the Cloud,” Lansing State Journal, March 24, 2013, pages 1E, 4E.
Posted on April 8, 2013

U.S. Prison Population

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U.S. Prison Population, 1980-2011

The number of people in prison in the United States is the highest in the world when calculated in terms of number per capita. The U.S. incarceration rate as of December 31, 2011 was 492 people per 100,000 in the population, and this did not count those in jail, awaiting trial or serving very short sentences. Those in jail increase the total number incarcerated by three-quarters of a million people. The chart shows the number of prisoners in the United States, annually, between 1980 and 2011 and includes only those in federal or state prisons but not those in jail.

Today’s market size is the number of people in the United States under the jurisdiction of state or federal corrections authorities as of December 31, 2011. These are people convicted of a crime and serving a prison term.

Worth noting is the fact that 8% of those in prison (at the end of 2010) were housed in private prisons run for profit. Leaders in the private prison business are CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) and GEO Group, Inc. which together account for approximately half of the prison contracts in the United States. As of January 1, 2011, 31 states contracted with private companies to house a portion of their prisoners. Texas had the largest number of persons in privately run prisons, 19,155 or 11% of its prison population. New Mexico had the largest percentage of its prison population housed by private prisons, 43.6% or 1,503 prisoners.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2011
Market size: 1,598,780 people
Source: E. Ann Carson and William J. Sabol, “Prisoners in 2011,” December 2012, a Bulletin published by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, and available online here. The figures related to private prisons come from Cody Mason, “Too Good to be True, Private Prisons in America,” The Sentencing Project, January 2012. The data for the graphic came from the above cited Department of Justice report as well as the Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2004–2005, page 208, “Table 338–Federal and State Prisoners, by Sex, 1980 to 2002,” Bureau of the Census.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau
Posted on April 4, 2013

3D Printing

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The arrival on the market of consumer level 3D printers in 2012 has brought a great deal of attention to the subject of 3D printing. In essence, 3D printing may be defined as follows: A way of making objects using a computer-driven, additive process, one layer at a time. A computer-aided design (CAD) system is used by a printer-like machine which creates thousands of cross sections of the designed object and then produces that object, in plastic or metal, layer by layer. Although the name is relatively new, the technology behind 3D printing emerged in the 1980s for use, primarily, in the manufacturing sector.

There are two distinct branches of 3D printing: (1) small-scale 3D printing, where individuals or small groups with comparatively cheap machines print plastic objects in their homes or small shops, and (2) industrial 3D printing, which is usually called additive manufacturing (AM). The current industrial applications of 3D printing (primarily the creation of models, molds and dies) are seen by many as having the potential to have a revolutionary impact on manufacturing as a whole, in part because of its replacement of more traditional machine tooling tasks.

Today’s market size is an estimated value of the 3D printer market in 2012 and a forecast as to its value within a decade. This forecast comes from a gentleman who is a founding member of a company selling 3D printers to the public, 3D Systems. His forecast may refer only to 3D printers sold for nonindustrial applications, in other words, the first of the two branches of this market, as described above.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2012 and 2022
Market size: $500 million and $35 billion respectively.
Source: Abe Reichental in a video interview with the Financial Times, “3D Printing ‘Bigger than Internet,'” June 21, 2012, available online here. “How Will 3D Printing Impact The Manufacturing Industry?” Seeking Alpha, March 18, 2013, available online here.
Original source: 3D Systems
Posted on April 2, 2013

Used Car Market

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Today’s market size is the number of used cars sold in the United States in 2012, a quantity that is 5% above the 2011 total. Many large-scale trends and factors play into the market for used vehicles, many of them related directly to how the new car market is doing. Therefore, to suggest that the losses from a natural disaster might play a role in the overall annual market for used cars is probably somewhat overstating matters. However, the loss of a quarter million cars in the hurricane that hit the east coast of the United States last fall, Hurricane Sandy, may well have played a small role in the 5% rise in used car sales during 2012. It may also bode well for used car sales in 2013.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2012
Market size: 40.5 million cars
Source: Mike Ramsey, “Amid New Car Boom, Used Cars Are Gold,” The Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2013, available online here. Michael Winerip, “Not Just a Car, but a Storm Victim, Too,” The New York Times, March 17, 2013, page S12.
Original source: Manheim Consulting and National Insurance Crime Bureau
Posted on March 22, 2013

Nutritional Supplements Market

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The market we’re presenting today is one that includes a large range of ingestible products, from vitamins and calcium pills to protein shakes, diet pills and energy drinks. The market is also referred to by various names, among them: nutritional supplements, dietary supplements, and simply, supplements. By whatever the name, this is a lucrative market and one that many people feel is less regulated than would be prudent. The federal guidelines regulating the ingredients used in the production of nutritional supplements are far less restrictive than those imposed on food and drink makers. Worth noting is the fact that federal requirements of pharmaceutical companies are even more restrictive than those regulating the food and drink industry. Nutritional supplements are not bound by the regulations for either of these industries—food and drink nor pharmaceuticals.

The supplements market has been growing steadily since the turn of the century and is expected to continue growing. Driving the growth are a number of factors. An older population looking to supplements to minimize the effects of aging is one such driver. The young, too, are using supplements heavily. Having grown up in a society that appears to approve of the use of chemicals to augment human capacities of all sorts, they turn to supplements to help build muscle, lose weight, and stay awake.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2011
Market size: $30 billion
Source: Natasha Singer and Peter Lattman, “Is the Seller to Blame,” The New York Times, March 17, 2013, page B1, available online here. Brittany McNamara, “Monster Energy Switches from Supplement to Beverage,” Nutrition Business Journal, February 14, 2013, available online here.
Original source: Nutrition Business Journal
Posted on March 20, 2013

U.S. Legal Services Industry

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Legal Service Industry value added in chained dollars

The private sector, legal services industry in the United States has not recovered since the recession that began in late 2007 as many other professional service sector industries have. While annual industry revenue for the legal services sector is up, it is not keeping pace with inflation. In fact, the industry has been declining as a percent of the economy almost steadily since the turn of the century. The graph we present here shows the industry from 1987 through 2011 in terms of real value added, thus adjusted for inflation.

Industry value added is defined by the Bureau of Economic Analysis as “…the contribution of a private industry or government sector to overall GDP. The components of value added consist of compensation of employees, taxes on production and imports less subsidies, and gross operating surplus. Value added equals the difference between an industry’s gross output (consisting of sales or receipts and other operating income, commodity taxes, and inventory change) and the cost of its intermediate inputs (including energy, raw materials, semi-finished goods, and services that are purchased from all sources).”

Today’s market size is the estimated revenue collected by private sector legal services firms in the United States in 2012. This industry is identified within the North American Industrial Classification System with the code 541100.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2012
Market size: $270.567 billion
Source: Matt Leichter, “U.S. Legal Sector Contracting Even As Nation’s Economy Recovers,” The AM Law Daily, March 6, 2013, available online here and “Table 1 – Selected Services Estimated Quarterly Revenue for Employer Firms Fourth Quarter 2003 Through Fourth Quarter 2012,” part of the “Annual Benchmark Report for Services,” a U.S. Census Bureau series of reports available at the site here. The data presented in our chart come from the Bureau of Economic Analysis website here.
Original source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis and Census Bureau
Posted on March 18, 2013

Canada’s Legal Services

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The legal services industry in Canada has grown annually since 2008 when it experienced a drop in revenues of 2.9% during the onset of the global financial crisis. Today’s market size is the value of total revenues earned by law firms—lawyers, barristers and solicitors primarily engaged in the practice of law— in Canada last year.

Geographic reference: Canada
Year: 2012
Market size: $26.7 billion.
Source: “Law Firms in Canada Industry Market Research Report Now Available from IBISWorld,” Digital Journal, March 6, 2013, available online here.
Original source: IBISWorld
Posted on March 14, 2013

Indian Automobile Makers

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Image of a street in India

Two- and three-wheel vehicles far outnumber four-wheel vehicles in India. Nonetheless, the automobile manufacturing industry in that country is growing rapidly, it is expected that by 2015 the number of four-wheel vehicles produced in India will be twice the figure produced in 2012.

Today’s market size is the number of automobiles made in India in 2012 for the domestic market as well as the number of two- and three-wheel vehicles.

Geographic reference: India
Year: 2012
Market size: 3.1 million automobiles and 16.5 million two- and three- wheel vehicles.
Source: Jonny Williams, Digital Manufacturing, March 12, 2013, available online here. The photo above comes from the Enjoy India website, here, with our thanks.
Posted on March 13, 2013

Instructional Technology

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There is a lot of churn going on in the publishing world and the textbook segment of that industry is no different. In fact, it may be experiencing more upheaval and change than is the industry as a whole, though that would be very hard to quantify. Everyone in the publishing trade is adapting to the digital world in one way or another.

Today’s market size focuses on an industry in which eTextbooks are but a small part. The market size comes from a press release about a new market study. The elaborate title of that study is “Global Smart Education & Learning Market Advanced Technologies, Digital Models, Adoption Trends & Worldwide Market Forecast (2012—2017),” a title whose very complexity says a lot about the market being studied. That market, as defined by the study authors, includes far more than eTextbooks. It includes software applications, electronic libraries, curriculum systems, and much more. This market “caters to the needs of national governments and international standard bodies, educators from all streams and from different levels, stakeholders for training and workforce skills.”

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2011
Market size: $73.8 billion, of which, the North American market accounted for approximately 60% of this total revenue.
Source: “Global Smart Education and Learning Market Is Expected to Reach a Value of $220 Billion by 2017, New Report Says,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 13, 2013, available online here.
Original source: Research And Markets
Posted on March 7, 2013

Canned Fishery Products

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Fishery products are canned for both human and animal consumption. In the United States, in 2010, 68.8% of all canned fishery products by weight were produced for human consumption and 31.3% for animal food and bait. In terms of value, the breakdown was 84.7% for human consumption and 15.3% for animal consumption.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2010
Market size: 954.14 million pounds valued at $1.411 billion
Source: “Fisheries of the United States–2010,” August 2011, page 46, available online from the National Marine Fisheries Service website, here.
Original source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Office of Science and Technology, National Marine Fisheries Service, USDA
Posted on March 6, 2013

The Sleep Business

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In 2012, approximately three-fourths of internet users searched online for health information. Half of them searched specifically for sleep remedies. According to the National Sleep Foundation, only 56% of Americans report getting a “good night’s sleep” on a typical night. Some sleep studies have found a link between insufficient sleep and hypertension, depression, diabetes, and other illnesses. Spending related to sleep has increased 8.8% yearly since 2008. Spending on over-the-counter sleep aids increased 31% from 2006 to 2011, with the biggest increase being spending on natural and homeopathic products.

Today’s market size is the estimated amount spent in the United States, in 2012, on things designed to aid sleep, from pills and medical devices to sleep consultants who work with hospitals and deluxe mattresses made with tension-relieving foams.

Wishing all our readers a sound night’s sleep!

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2012
Market size: $32 billion
Source: Kit Yarrow, “The Sleep Industry: Why We’re Paying Big Bucks for Something That’s Free,” Time, January 28, 2013, available online here.
Posted on March 1, 2013