22%: The share of U.S. manufacturing jobs lost during the recent downturn that has been regained during the recovery.

American manufacturing was creamed in the recession. From December 2007 to December 2009, factories shed nearly 2.3 million jobs, or 16.5% of the sector’s total. Of course, the recession ended in June of 2009—but factories kept dumping workers for months thereafter. The rest of the economy suffered big job losses in the downturn too, but nowhere near the bloodbath in manufacturing. Jobs in all other categories combined fell about 5% during the same two-year period.

“Manufacturing always takes the brunt of recessions—and that’s particularly true in this cycle,” says Daniel Meckstroth, chief economist with the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation, an industry-funded research group.

One reason, says Meckstroth, is that purchases of durable goods like dishwashers and cars are easy to postpone. “You can always get another year” out of something designed to last years, he adds.