U.S. Manufacturing Spurs Jobs Growth Everywhere Not Just In Factories

Don't believe what you've been reading in the mainstream press. Manufacturing is back and here to stay. The skeptics have missed a major piece of the puzzle,  according to American Jobs Alliance board member Clyde Prestowitz.

The Washington Post's Robert J. Samuelson recently waxed cynical about U.S. advanced manufacturing, warning against romantizing it to have the same mass employment potential as its 20th century self. Future jobs, he concluded, will come mostly from the services sector.

To some extent, Prestowitz points out in his Foreign Policy magazine blog, Samuelson is right. But that's beside the point. What's important about the U.S. manufacturing renaissance is not only its jobs creation potential but also its ability to drive employment activity in other sectors.

"Regardless of how many people are employed directly in manufacturing, it is indisputable as several major studies have shown that $1 of manufacturing activity creates $1.48 of additional activity in the economy. This is more than for a $1 spent in any other sector such as banking, retailing, restauranting, business consulting, etc. The economy gets more bang for the buck out of manufacturing than out of any other activity. So the indirect jobs created by manufacturing are numerous and important," the Economic Strategy Institute president explains.

Manufacturing also finances nearly two-thirds of all non-governmental R&D activities. So, it's not all about jobs within the sector, per se. It's more about employment throughout the nation's entire economy.

"Rationalizing that by arguing that it doesn't matter because our future is in services, is a grave mistake," Prestowitz added.

Read all about it: http://atfp.co/15niChv