( CNN ) -- The image of the empty factory has haunted American presidential campaigns for decades , but President Barack Obama tried to flip the picture Thursday night . `` I 've signed trade agreements that are helping our companies sell more goods to millions of new customers , goods that are stamped with three proud words : Made in America , '' Obama said as he accepted the Democratic nomination for a second term . `` After a decade of decline , this country created over half a million manufacturing jobs in the last two and a half years . '' That may sound surprising in an era where unemployment remains stuck above 8 % long after the official end of the 2007-2009 recession , so CNN took a closer look . The facts : . American manufacturing jobs peaked in the late 1970s , according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics . The figures bounced up and down through the 1980s and 1990s before starting to drop steadily in 1998 . The sector employed 15.6 million in January 2002 , according to BLS statistics , down from about 19.5 million in 1979 . They declined steadily through the next 10 years , falling to just under 11.5 million in January 2010 . But then the numbers turned around , rising to 11.9 million at the beginning of 2012 and just under 12 million as of July . But while the turn has been positive , the numbers of workers being hired each month are well below the figures posted a decade ago . New hires averaged about 400,000 a month in 2001 , compared with about 250,000 in 2011 . And as with other statistics cited during the three-day Democratic convention , it 's not quite the whole picture . Manufacturing sector employment is still down by about 500,000 since Obama took office and by more than 3.7 million since the start of the recession in December 2007 . Conclusion : . Obama 's statement is technically accurate , and he and other speakers took great pains to acknowledge the still-struggling recovery . But while the return to growth in manufacturing is indeed a promising turn of events , employment in the sector is still at a net loss during Obama 's tenure . Fact Check : The $ 2,000 question . Fact Check : About those 4.5 million jobs ... Fact Check : Trimming the Pentagon . CNN 's Matt Smith and Emily Smith contributed to this report .
Manufacturing jobs reversed a long decline in employment . Romney touted that turnaround in his Democratic convention speech . But employment in the state remained far below its prerecession peak .