Policy needed for true manufacturing job recovery

by Talk Business & Politics staff ([email protected]) 288 views 

Despite last week’s largely positive jobs report, manufacturers continue to be unimpressed. The sector saw only 5,000 jobs added in January.

Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) President Scott Paul said it was “tough to see no significant job gains” for the month.

“I just met with workers from Carrier and Rexnord in Indiana, some of whom face layoffs starting next month. The shockwave of these layoffs will ripple through families and communities, deepening the pain,” Paul said, adding that it was time “to turn campaign rhetoric on manufacturing into game-changing policy shifts.”

“We [AAM] stand ready to work with the White House and Congress on tax, trade, currency, infrastructure and other policies that will restore some factory jobs and create new ones,” Paul said. “Working class voters with economic concerns are watching, and they are counting on action.”

Paul was appointed to President Trump’s Manufacturing Jobs Initiative on Jan. 27. Four days later, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released a report noting the U.S. had lost 3.4 million jobs to China as a result of a “lopsided trade deficit.” At that time, Paul echoed some of the President’s campaign talking points, remarking the U.S. needed “stronger trade enforcement and new tools to addresses currency manipulation and overcapacity.”

The report found many of the hardest-hit congressional districts were in states dense with high-tech manufacturing such as California, Texas, Oregon, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Arizona. Furthermore, between 2001 and 2011, growing trade deficits reduced the incomes of directly impacted workers by $37 billion per year, and growing competition with imports from China and other low-wage countries reduced the wages of all non-college graduates by $180 billion per year.

The trade deficit in the computer and electronic parts industry grew the most, with 1.238 million jobs lost or displaced from 2001-2015.