Despite all the hoopla and lies surrounding NAFTA by populist politicians the US is manufacturing more hard goods than ever before. Today:
Openings for manufacturing jobs this year have averaged 353,000 a month, up from 311,000 in 2015 and 122,000 in 2009.
www.wsj.com/…
Why does it SEEM like US manufacturing is in decline when it is not?
Gary Miller has observed manufacturing’s evolution firsthand. When he started at Ohio-based Kyocera SGS Precision Tools Inc. in 1989, it employed 550 production workers. Despite shedding half its workers, it now produces twice as much, thanks to higher-skilled employees and equipment such as computer-controlled machine tools, which cost as much as $500,000 each.
This is born out by Federal Reserve data:
fred.stlouisfed.org/…
US manufacturers are producing far more than ever before with half the workers. EDI has eliminated millions of data entry jobs that existed in the 1980s. No longer is “data entry” a needed skillset.
Lesson — Don’t let demagogues demagogue.