President Biden often talks about reviving American manufacturing jobs. He brags that “Make It In America” is not just a slogan for his administration; it’s a reality.
This led Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell to point out another reality: manufacturing jobs remain near a record-low 8.4% of total employment, and there are good reasons not to expect a return to the heady war days of the 1940s, when 35% of jobs were in this sector.
But, she said, all is not lost.
Contrary to myths that we’ve stopped making things in the United States, we already manufacture a lot of stuff here,” Rampell wrote.
“In fact, we manufacture nearly the most ‘stuff’ on record, as measured by the inflation-adjusted value of those products. We just happen to make that stuff with fewer workers than we used to, because technological advances have led to huge productivity gains.”
A perfect example: The United States produces about as much steel as it did three decades ago. But it does so with only half as many workers. As Rampell observed, the country is still making lots of steel, but we’re using robots to do more of the work.
The president talks animatedly about adding lots of jobs to build semiconductors, electric vehicles, wind turbines and fiber-optic cables. He believes these new industries will power the country’s economic growth.
The flip side, of course, is that robotics and mechanization is only going to increase in the future. Electric vehicles require fewer parts than gasoline-powered ones, so they probably will require fewer workers to assemble. Yes, we want those jobs in America, but unless longstanding trends change rapidly, auto manufacturing employment is unlikely to grow.
Once again, all is not lost. The most insightful part of Rampell’s column notes the increasing importance of education and training in the work force and points out what a lot of American workers are doing well.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that since 2000, manufacturing employment has fallen by 20%. No surprise there. But jobs in that sector for people without a high school diploma have crashed — down 48%. Manufacturing jobs for people who finished high school or who attended college without graduating are down about 30%.
But manufacturing jobs for people with an associate degree, bachelor’s degree or higher have increased. To Rampell, the lesson is clear: “The manufacturing jobs that will persist will likely require more education and training than in the past.” Workforce training, anyone?
Her second point, and this is perhaps more important, is that we make a lot of other stuff in America too: Engineering, entertainment, graphic design, medicine, finance, education.
“The United States is a services-based economy,” she wrote. “We are really, really good at producing services in America, and employing Americans in service-sector jobs.” That is something our future workers need to remember.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
