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    1. The employment data comes from the Census Bureau’s [County Business Patterns](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/data.html). The industries identified are based on a [2012 Brookings report](https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2017/05/09/Brookings_locating_american_manufacturing_report.pdf) on high-tech manufacturing. I used R to analyze the data and d3.js to make the map.

      I have a longer [blog post](https://blog.waldrn.com/p/the-decline-of-high-tech-manufacturing) about the topic, which includes a 1987 version of the map (below), as well as some charts showing the decline of high-tech manufacturing industries over the past 35 years.

      https://preview.redd.it/u4dk7yi7sxfe1.png?width=3624&format=png&auto=webp&s=ebf798c1aec50374d77c75fa1b5708ac5eb724a1

    2. I’m surprised the northeast isn’t higher. That spike in Mont Co PA is mostly Mercks’ largest manufacturing site. Nearby there are a bunch. Somerset Co NJ has a JnJ campus of similar footprint.

    3. Material_Zombie on

      I’m surprised Huntsville AL isn’t up there for aerospace instead of computer/electronics.

    4. SeaworthinessRude241 on

      a map that’s actually NOT a population map. Very interesting. Chicagoland has almost nothing, which is surprising to me.

    5. St. Louis really punching above its weight among the formerly industrial Rust Belt cities. 

    6. IMO car manufacturing should be included, as it is comparable to aerospace for the majority of what is being manufactured. Both use sheet metal forming and composites.

    7. Interesting that there are more people in Boeing than in Microsoft in the Seattle area. I wouldn’t have guessed that.

    8. Honeywell aerospace is based in pheonix? Why isn’t there a aerospace bump there, not sure I trust the data source that much