Thomas B. Mandelbaum evaluates the performance of manufacturing in the Eighth Federal Reserve District in “Is Eighth District Manufacturing Endangered?” He uses employment data and several measures of output to compare regional with national manufacturing activity between 1972 and 1985. Mandelbaum concludes that the expansion of District manufacturing was closely similar to that of the nation as a whole during this period; the District experienced neither the severe manufacturing decline associated with the Rust Belt nor the sharp expansions of the South and West. The parallel growth of District and national manufacturing points out the similarities in industrial composition, labor productivity and unit labor costs between the two.