Lou Dobbs constantly harps about the loss in American manufacturing jobs. I came across some data today that Mr. Dobbs should look at.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics manufacturing jobs are projected to face continued reductions in the coming years. From their high in 1997 at 17.4 million they dropped to 15.3 in 2002 and 13.9 million in 2007. They are projected to lose another 1.3 million jobs between 2007 and 2017. In 2017 we will have but 12.5 million manufacturing jobs. Dobbs would attribute this to outsourcing.
But if you look at jobs in government they are projected to continue to rise; from 19.7 million in 1997, to 21.5 million in 2002, to 22.2 million in 2007 and to finally grow to 23.5 million in 2017. Notice the strange convergence? Government jobs increased over the period in the same proportion that manufacturing jobs reduced. It must not be the outsourcing, it must be the growth in government. Makes about as much sense as Dobbs does.
In reality if you look at the loss of farm jobs over the period (from 1.3 million in 1997 to 1 million in 2017) there is not the same weltschmerzing. Ultimately in both the farm sector and manufacturing jobs are moving away because of productivity enhancements. Manufacturing output in the US is actually increasing but more robots and automation are helping make us better at it.
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1 comment:
So, the government is basically taking people with no tangible skills and putting them on the government payroll to artificially mask the unemployment rate. This sure makes me happy as one of the top tax bracket taxpayers who is constantly being told I need to pay my "fair share."
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