For the second meeting in a row, the Federal Reserve announced it will hold federal fund rates steady at a target range of 4.25% to 4.5%. Learn what this means for the producers and distributors of manufacturing technology.

New policies and bold predictions – what’s next for manufacturing in 2025? At AMT’s Winter Economic Forum, top economists and industry experts analyzed the economic outlook, policy shifts, and emerging trends shaping the industry’s future.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released their first estimate of GDP for the fourth quarter of 2024. According to the first estimate, GDP grew 2.3% at an annualized rate. This was driven by strong consumer demand but held back by lagging investment.

Today the Federal Reserve announced they would hold benchmark rates at a target range of 4.25% to 4.50% in a widely anticipated move. This is the first meeting where the Fed held rates steady since they began to cut rates in September 2024.

Just as early humans’ original tools were constrained by their power sources, today’s modern technological advances are limited by their access to sufficient and reliable supplies of electricity.

Any move by the Federal Reserve that keeps the economy growing at or above its current pace would spur additional investment in manufacturing technology given the currently elevated capacity utilization levels.

This article will explore how demand for automation responded to historic shifts, the impact on manufacturing jobs, and what impacts these shifting trends have had on productivity.

In much the same way that the Fed was able to reduce interest rates in 1995 to allow the economy to continue expanding for the remainder of the decade, today’s Fed may be engineering a so-called “soft landing,".

In a widely anticipated move, the Federal Reserve slashed the federal funds rate by another 25 basis points to a target range of 4.5% to 4.75%. The manufacturing technology industry may find itself at the beginning of a strong market.

Today the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released their first estimate of GDP for the third quarter of 2024. According to the first estimate, GDP grew 2.8% at an annualized rate.