As the U.S. economy continues its long recovery from the Great Recession, one bright spot has been a sector that, to listen to the cynics, you might think had packed up and fled the country. I'm talking about manufacturing. The truth is, U.S. manufacturing is a growth business. Since the end of the recession in 2009, manufacturing employment in this country has risen by nearly 1.3 million workers, to a total of more than 12.7 million jobs. And a quarter-million of those manufacturing jobs were added in the last 12 months alone, according to the latest government employment report.

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded again in August, say the nation's supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business. The August PMI registered 61.3 percent, an increase of 3.2 percentage points from the July reading of 58.1 percent. PMI is an indicator of the economic health of the manufacturing sector; it's based on five major indicators: new orders, inventory levels, production, supplier deliveries and the employment environment. A reading above 50 percent indicates that the manufacturing economy is generally expanding; below 50 percent indicates that it is generally contracting.