It depends what you read – the reported numbers show manufacturing jobs are on the increase but is it too soon to tell and can you really believe the numbers?
The Curious Capitalist
By Rana Foroohar
TIME Business
Is America in the middle of a manufacturing job revival? The latest numbers would make it seem so. The U.S. has added more net manufacturing jobs since the start of 2010 than the rest of the G7 nations put together, with only two other economies, Germany and Canada, increasing factory employment at all.
The jump is due to a number of factors, including American productivity growth (which has outpaced Europe as a whole), compressed wages, and higher energy costs (which make it more costly to ship products back from locations with cheaper labor, like Asia). As the FT recently reported, from 2002-10, U.S. manufacturing unit labor costs in dollar terms fell 11 percent, compared with rises of 3 percent rise in Japan and 41 percent in Germany. Companies that are now bringing jobs back home include some of America’s largest blue chip multinationals, like Ford, GE, and United Technologies.
Does this mean the end of the shrinking middle? After all, decently paid manufacturing positions were the core of the middle income jobs bracket since the 1950s; the hollowing out of the manufacturing sector is a key reason that workers in rich countries haven’t gotten a real raise since the 1970s. Democrats would like us to think so. With jobs and the economy still the major campaign issue, the Obama administration has been making hay with the numbers in various speeches and press releases. The rhetoric will likely increase if Mitt Romney gets the Republican nomination, and Obama tries to position himself as the defender of the 99% in comparison to the former Bain “quarter billionaire.”
Is America in the middle of a manufacturing job revival? The latest numbers would make it seem so. The U.S. has added more net manufacturing jobs since the start of 2010 than the rest of the G7 nations put together, with only two other economies, Germany and Canada, increasing factory employment at all.
The jump is due to a number of factors, including American productivity growth (which has outpaced Europe as a whole), compressed wages, and higher energy costs (which make it more costly to ship products back from locations with cheaper labor, like Asia). As the FT recently reported, from 2002-10, U.S. manufacturing unit labor costs in dollar terms fell 11 percent, compared with rises of 3 percent rise in Japan and 41 percent in Germany. Companies that are now bringing jobs back home include some of America’s largest blue chip multinationals, like Ford, GE, and United Technologies.
Does this mean the end of the shrinking middle? After all, decently paid manufacturing positions were the core of the middle income jobs bracket since the 1950s; the hollowing out of the manufacturing sector is a key reason that workers in rich countries haven’t gotten a real raise since the 1970s. Democrats would like us to think so. With jobs and the economy still the major campaign issue, the Obama administration has been making hay with the numbers in various speeches and press releases. The rhetoric will likely increase if Mitt Romney gets the Republican nomination, and Obama tries to position himself as the defender of the 99% in comparison to the former Bain “quarter billionaire.”
Read the complete article and more from TIME - HERE
