"The argument that we are losing jobs in manufacturing due to productivity [increases] is inaccurate."
Why do say that? Nothing in the data you present on the declining *share* of Gross Domestic Product from the manufacturing sector supports this statement. The total (not relative) value of output in manufacturing has risen slightly since the most recent recession, but the total number of manufacturing jobs has continued to decline, as it has for 30+ years. It must be true, therefore, that output per worker ("labor productivity") is rising, as it has for 30+ years.
Why do say that? Nothing in the data you present on the declining *share* of Gross Domestic Product from the manufacturing sector supports this statement. The total (not relative) value of output in manufacturing has risen slightly since the most recent recession, but the total number of manufacturing jobs has continued to decline, as it has for 30+ years. It must be true, therefore, that output per worker ("labor productivity") is rising, as it has for 30+ years.
If a factory produces 1,000,000 widgets with 1000 employees in a given year and then produces the same amount of widgets the following year with less employees then that is a result of a productivity gain and jobs lost are a result of that productivity gain.
If the same factory closes shop and widgets are now made overseas then the jobs lost are not a result of productivity gains.
Since manufacturing continues to shrink as a percentage of our GDP it follows that productivity increases are not sufficient enough to grow manufacturing at the same rate as the economy. The net difference is not productivity job loss, it is manufacturing moving overseas job loss.