Manufacturing jobs increasing faster than in almost two decades

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Factory Job Gains Under Obama Best Since Clinton: BGOV Barometer - Bloomberg

In an election focused on jobs, President Barack Obama can boast of crossing one milestone: the longest stretch of employment gains in manufacturing in almost two decades.

The BGOV Barometer shows U.S. factory positions have grown since early 2010, arresting a slide that began toward the end of the 1990s. It’s the best showing since the era of Bill Clinton, the only president in the last 30 years to leave office with more factory jobs than when he began.
Enlarge image Factory Job Gains Under Obama Best Since Clinton

The U.S. has made up 4.1 million of the 8.8 million overall jobs lost as a result of the 18-month recession that ended in June 2009, with unemployment exceeding 8 percent for 43 consecutive months, a post-World War II record.

“The gain in manufacturing jobs is certainly helpful, it is one way to show we’re moving forward,” said Terry Madonna, a political science professor and director of the Franklin & Marshall College poll in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “President Obama has to create a psychology all over the country that things are getting better. This is a piece explaining that idea.”

Obama and Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney have visited factories to promise voters they can boost the labor market, which would accelerate consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy. The U.S. has made up 4.1 million of the 8.8 million overall jobs lost as a result of the 18-month recession that ended in June 2009, with unemployment exceeding 8 percent for 43 consecutive months, a post-World War II record.

The revival of factory employment may matter most in battleground states including Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Madonna said. Obama is leading Romney in Ohio “by a larger margin than many of us had thought possible, to a great extent because of the auto industry bailout,” he said, so “saving auto jobs is an agenda the president can push in such places.”
Low Baseline

In a larger context, factory jobs are rebounding off a low base, and an employment level of 12 million in August is down from 17.9 million in 1990. Even so, gains in all except three months since February 2010 provide “reason to believe manufacturing employment may have turned the corner,” said Muir Macpherson, a Bloomberg Government economist in Washington who analyzed the government data on factory jobs.

“This is the first sustained increase we’ve seen in a long time,” Macpherson said. A continuation of the trend may mean factory employment by the end of a second term for Obama would be higher than when he took office in 2009, putting him in the company of Clinton, he said. The progress so far also contrasts with the job losses seen during the recovery from the 2001 recession, when George W. Bush was president, he said.
Natural-Gas Revival

One area where the Obama administration can take credit for the pickup is for “not getting in the way of the renaissance in the natural-gas industry,” said Thomas Duesterberg, former chief executive officer of Arlington, Virginia-based Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI. “It could become a very important contributor to growth in manufacturing and manufacturing-related employment,” he said.

More jobs at factories are mainly an outcome of longer-term trends including rising productivity and innovation, a weaker dollar and free trade agreements, he said.

“There’s something of a revival in American manufacturing employment,” said Duesterberg, executive director of Aspen Institute’s Manufacturing and Society in the 21st Century program. “We’re done with the reduction phase and into the expansion phase. Given the many difficulties in the U.S. and global economy, it’s reassuring that we’ve achieved the job growth that is taking place.”

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

But I thought the govt was pushing jobs and investors away

What is happening to the Republican party

 

[Good Guy Guevara]

Seems like the outsourcing is bottoming out. We have the technology and workforce to create new manufacturing markets.

 

[Prodigital]

Seems like the outsourcing is bottoming out. We have the technology and workforce to create new manufacturing markets.

America stands a chance to win because we're gonna be the first to supply tons of employees capable of doing highly technical manufacturing grudge work of the future !

China's due for a revolution brehs, USA bouta eat

 

[Captain Crunch]

good to see more folks getting jobs

 

[Mensch Fontana]

whoop dee doo more working poor, people are still poor

 

[john goodman]

Will only be getting better

Thank you based bernanke

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

whoop dee doo more working poor, people are still poor

Obv theres other issues, but since when is job growth not a good thing?

This is a stupidly simple analysis of this article.

 

[thekingsmen]

I love when media keeps feeding people lies and they will believe it. No real jobs have been created just part time gigs and small contract jobs that may die out in 6 months...that's not growth.

 

[Slystallion]

When your at bottom there is only up...

What is the quality of these jobs

What other market forces and free trade agreements are the cause of this? Would have liked more analysis from the article as opposed to what reads like a pr campaign ad from the Obama administration

There is always the story and then the whole story

 

[john goodman]

How soon until Foxconn opens a factory here?

 

[No1]

When your at bottom there is only up...

What is the quality of these jobs

What other market forces and free trade agreements are the cause of this? Would have liked more analysis from the article as opposed to what reads like a pr campaign ad from the Obama administration

There is always the story and then the whole story

Even if free trade agreements were the cause, they would be agreements supported by the O-Adminstration, like the one with Korea. Either way, it's a credit to him. But I have always believed that overall, the government can do very little to create middle income jobs.

 

[john goodman]

When your at bottom there is only up...

What is the quality of these jobs

What other market forces and free trade agreements are the cause of this? Would have liked more analysis from the article as opposed to what reads like a pr campaign ad from the Obama administration

There is always the story and then the whole story

Inflation + Americans needing to feed and clothe themselves = get ready for factory work

Americans don't even know what's gonna hit him, still getting degrees like that will do them any good

Don't care about your theater degree, get back on the line

 

[Slystallion]

Even if free trade agreements were the cause, they would be agreements supported by the O-Adminstration, like the one with Korea. Either way, it's a credit to him. But I have always believed that overall, the government can do very little to create middle income jobs.

I agree no president can create jobs or policy. It's more about allowing certain markets to prosper or unintentionally diminishing market growth with regulations or tax law.

Technological cultural issues can have higher positive outcomes on markets but economic factors can also greatly influence markets in both directions...depending on what trade offs you choose with political policy

 

[Slystallion]

Inflation + Americans needing to feed and clothe themselves = get ready for factory work

Americans don't even know what's gonna hit him, still getting degrees like that will do them any good

Don't care about your theater degree, get back on the line

Exactly how many of these guys are working part time or have downgraded from management positions

A lot of times instead of laying off workers you move them to different departments that pay less but keep people employed