Manufacturing accounts for approximately 12% of U.S. GDP — not as much as it used to be, but the U.S. is still the world’s top manufacturer. In fact, by itself, U.S. manufacturing would still be around the eighth largest economy in the world.
From Rail Time Indicators July 2010 from AAR
Not going to lie, I was surprised by this stat. Perhaps because I am from suburban NJ and live in NY now I'm not really exposed much to American manufacturing. Anyway, I found it interesting that American manufacturing is top of the world. I guess this makes sense, since we still build a lot of expensive things like cars, turbines, power equipment, etc, that contributes a lot more to our GDP than your water gun that was made in China.
I think the real issue is the direction of growth for US manufacturing. We have a technological edge now but will that last in the future while we dumb down the math and science programs at schools?
It seems like everyone is getting "degrees" in "what interests them" which is often not engineering or science.
The US has always acted like a brain drain on other countries by absorbing their best and brightest. Now, those other countries are getting better and we're...stagnating? Certainly we're not becoming a more free nation or a safer one. So the comparative advantages of wealth, freedom and security are diminishing.
If you love America, go kidnap some brainy Asians. We need their 1334 science skills.
We also need people with computer science skills. Your speak is far from 1337.
A lot of what we make is heavy machinery, agricultural equipment, specialized industrial equipment, aerospace & defense finished goods (though components often come from abroad), oil/gas/mining equipment and paper.
There was actually an article a while back talking about the shortage we have in skilled machinists.
Yeah I think the cause of this problem is two-fold: (1) even manufacturing jobs have moved up the value chain, out of reach for the typical blue collar worker; and (2) companies are more reluctant to provide extensive on-the-job training, given the decline in lifetime employment and eagerness to outsource/eliminate jobs
Friendly advice. Take a road trip. Get out and see this beautiful country! Skip the cities and major highways. Take some local roads through the Midwest, for instance. You will see the manufacturing that supposedly doesn't exist and more importantly you will see the type of America you only heard about from Gramps and perhaps saw in an old movie.
Growing up in the NJ/NY area makes you a complete friggin' ass hat in terms of your views of America. Don't take offense, as I speak from personal experience. Sometimes living in an urban setting makes you a lot more ignorant to reality, then being "out in the sticks". In spite of the daily mass media idiotics, there's still no place you'd rather live...and there is still nothing as respected as the "Made in U.S.A." label worldwide.
Be easy.
Will do. I took a road trip down to Florida with my fam this summer and we stayed a night in Duncan, SC, which is home to a number of manufacturing plants (BMW's biggest plant in the world is there). That's about it on my exposure to manufacturing lol.
I posted this a few weeks ago on a different thread but this is a New Yorker's view of the world:
http://strangemaps.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/newyorker2.JPG
The coasts and the heartland are 2 different places
Driving from Indianapolis to Chicago, you see quite a bit of manufacturing. Keep going through Milwaukee to Madison, and you get the same. In fact, manufacturing is growing between Chicago and Milwaukee. Cleveland area is much of the same. There are a ton of boutique IBs in these cities servicing these companies, too.
I have read a lot of mixed views on this subject. I saw a break down and they had Germany as the highest per hour cost for a manufacturing hour per person. USA was second. China was at $3.00. Now I think this is unfair because you have to factor in a)Shipping costs b)Taxes/Tarrifs/Fees 3)Cost of setting up shop around the world and a bunch of other fees. China is still cheaper, but the per hour cost is not the full picture.
I think the problem is we are in a nether region. Low cost manufacturing is going overseas because US workers cannot work for wages that small. High end machining and manufacturing is still here, but there is this grey zone where we need more skilled workers, but don't have them. Kind of like we need workers with 2 year degrees in engineering lite or something.
High school doesn't prepare them and 4 years of college is over kill. We need a really good tech school system in place to train these factory workers for more advanced factory work. Just look at auto mechanics. You almost need a 4 year degree to work on case today. There are a lot of well paying jobs that require special skills not taught in formal education.
Tech Schools are not going to help you there. Most of these skillsets are learned on the job or just your own experience. I learned how to wrench on motorcycles just because I'm actually interested in learning and learned from more experienced people. That's why back in the day they had apprentices.
..
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/business/economy/02manufacturing.html
Was this the article you were talking about?
This is a shame to some extent.
"Here in this suburb of Cleveland, supervisors at Ben Venue Laboratories, a contract drug maker for pharmaceutical companies, have reviewed 3,600 job applications this year and found only 47 people to hire at $13 to $15 an hour, or about $31,000 a year.
The going rate for entry-level manufacturing workers in the area, according to Cleveland State University, is $10 to $12 an hour, but more skilled workers earn $15 to $20 an hour.
All candidates at Ben Venue must pass a basic skills test showing they can read and understand math at a ninth-grade level. A significant portion of recent applicants failed, and the company has been disappointed by the quality of graduates from local training programs. It is now struggling to fill 100 positions"
Thoughts?
I think this is pretty sad. Half of me wants to go on a rant about our shitty schools, but another part says this is what happens when you graduate high school and work unskilled jobs. Your brain goes to shit.
This is what I was talking about though. The unskilled manufacturing is going overseas, but the semi skilled stuff cannot find workers qualified. Real conundrum.
I go to school in High Point, NC, the furniture capital of the world. If you saw High Point 10 or even 15 years ago compared to today, you'll see that a lot of manufacturing has left. Sure I can see textiles leaving to India and China but craftsmanship....I thought you could only do that by skill. My marketing class recently went to the spring market and went to a high end furniture line where our guide told us most of what was in the showroom was made by machines in China. Those that were hand made had a huge value mark up but were still in China.
It's sad that the days have long been over of furniture titans in the U.S. (now that just sounds silly). Since I've been going to school there the past two years, I've heard of at least three places that employed skilled craftsman that went out of business. The only type of schools that really have a chance of getting us back into the manufacturing sector is the A&M colleges and certain State colleges that specialize in agriculture (i.e. NC State).
I also agree with Victor252 about students only majoring in what "interests" them. I suppose one argument is that, at $37,000/year, they should do that. However, I just find it so hard to believe someone can spend that much money a year, major in drama or theater or sports management, and graduate into a successful job relating to that major. Most kids I know graduate and apply back to our school as an admissions counselor. I'm a finance major and I'm in the minority.
Education is definitely part of the problem. People don't learn these "hard skills" in school any more so American businesses have fewer people able to innovate in the manufacturing sector. You definitely need semi-skilled labor but when there's a smaller pool of highly skilled engineers/technicians, there will be less technical innovation which lowers the cost of production and keeps jobs in this country.
Instead we have people who can't pass a 9th grade reading test and others who are very "well read" working as waiters because what they learned in college isn't in high demand by society or the marketplace.
This conversation is reminiscent of that woman from NYU who blew 100k on a degree in religious history...well she learned her lesson that money isn't free. Too bad many kids still don't really understand that.
I found that article NeverSurrender wrote to be interesting though. We have some people who are not skilled enough to find work and others who make a lot of money but outsource the majority of the jobs to China/India.
Personally, I think their is a tremendous societal pressure to go to college. Not everyone needs to go. Some people could work in manufacturing and make the same amount (if not more) money. This is very much like NYU girl. She could have gone to a technical school and could now be making money in manufacturing! haha. Its like owning a home in this nation (Which we've discussed before); for whatever reason, society wants us to go to college, even if it might not be in our own best interest.
I also think that the market wage for skilled laborer should be higher, especially if the supply of skilled laborers is so small (and shrinking). Why would you work for 700/wk in manufacturing (17.5 hr as an average of whats stated above * 40 hr week) when you could make 1000/wk in the public sector, where all you need to do is have a bachelors or associates degree. Seems to me it doesn't make sense to develop the technical skills in manufacturing if you are just going to earn less than a public sector employee who gets benefits + sits in a chair all day. Either the market rate (and thus, the actual wages paid to skilled laborers) for skilled labor needs to increase, or the pay/benefits of a public sector job need to decrease so that more qualified high school grads will consider skipping college and going to tech school where they can learn the skills for manufacturing.
(feel free to correct me I'm just bouncing ideas around)
I think the simple answer is often correct. Go back to the old adage of "the first generation creates it, the second generation builds upon it and the third generation destroys it" (in reference to wealth, business or any other semblance of prosperity). America has always been about hard workers and traders. The "rednecks", "hicks" and "scumbags" as these folk are generally portrayed today. The Liberal Idiot emphasis on education (naturally, an overwhelmingly useless Liberal Arts/Humanities education) takes away from focus and drive to achieve in subjects such as Math and Science (the only two hard sciences and only two major subject available at every school which GUARANTEE an impact on industry). As a result most of our grads are specialists on "management". However, we are simply lacking experts that perform actual work.
You cannot create much out of people skills. We have forgotten that the activity of building itself, is what builds prosperity and progress...
If that makes sense.
I think the problem here is that we're comparing wage levels in Ohio to that of the coasts. Plus this was only entry level work for people without any certifications.
Think of it like this: How much does an IB Analyst/Associate in NYC make an hour? How much does a licensed plumber in NYC make an hour?
How many years does it take to a get a college? At what dollar cost? Ditto for plumbing?
Now realize that IB is extremely competitive and high paying while there are much lower barriers to entry for many trades out there.
But you do make a good point about societal pressure. And college is a fun time, but is it worth it and can the bottom 10-20% of graduates really afford it?
I think another major problem that a lot of people realize is this: What they teach you in college is almost meaningless. I have a friend that is interning at JP Morgan this summer and he said that the first thing they told him was, and I quote, "Forget everything you learned in college. This is how it's done". I also have another friend that's an accountant. He graduated with a finance/accounting degree and said everything he's done at the accounting firm he had to learn. Nothing carried over from college skill-wise.
Perhaps colleges should go back to actually preparing students for the "real world". I don't think my college offers any classes that teach VBA, and being as I have a Mac and Office for mac, I can't practice on my own. VBA seems to be a hot tool to use. I suppose I should be grateful for the lessons in Pivot Tables and V lookup...
In high school there are the people who are on the college track and the people who everyone else shits on because they are no on the college track. I really think there needs to be an emphasis on skilled trades as well as college prep. College is not a panacea and too many people look at it as such. 4 years and a lot of money to be a waiter is a crime. I don't care how open your mind is or how well read you are, you are broke and will probably be that way.
This economy needs more skilled workers rather than more "smart" workers. With the advancements in technology almost every type of manufacturing job requires some type of tech savvy.
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