[central_va]

Recent manufacturing job losses nationally and by state U.S. manufacturing employment was relatively stable between 1970 and 1998, and never fell below 16.5 million workers, as shown in Figure B. U.S. manufacturing employment reached a cyclical peak in March 1998. The United States lost 5.7 million manufacturing jobs between March 1998 and 2013, as shown in Table 9. The principal causes of manufacturing job loss were growing trade deficits, especially with China, Mexico, and other low-wage nations, and also the Great Recession, which was followed by a weak recovery. The Asian financial crisis of late 1997 caused the real, trade-weighted value of the U.S. dollar to rise 20 percent in value through the first quarter of 2002. What began with steady growth in U.S. manufacturing imports and job losses in the late 1990s turned into a major collapse when the U.S. economy fell into recession in early 2001. Manufacturing employment declined continuously thereafter throughout the recovery that ended in December 2007. The Great Recession caused another collapse in manufacturing employment, followed by a relatively weak recovery since 2009. Between March 1998 and December 2007, 3.9 million manufacturing jobs were lost and an additional 1.8 million manufacturing jobs were lost through 2013 (Figure B; Bureau of Labor Statistics 2014a and author’s analysis).

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Recent manufacturing job losses nationally and by state

[Alberta's Child]

U.S. manufacturing employment peaked in 1979. Are you going to tell me that 1979 was the heyday of the U.S. economy?

[Alberta's Child]

What you are describing there is evidence of a complete disconnect between manufacturing employment and industrial output. That’s something you will find in every advanced economy in the world.

[Theoria]

'Recent manufacturing job losses nationally and by state U.S. manufacturing employment was relatively stable between 1970 and 1998,'

Prior to permanent most-favored-nation trade status for China. Joy.

Clinton Grants China MFN, Reversing Campaign Pledge

President[Bush] Grants Permanent Trade Status to China

[mad_as_he$$]

So it took decades to get into the current situation. It will take decades to undo it. Can't start up and put into operation a large scale mfg plant overnight. The growth rate of the US economy basically doubled in 6 months time. The rubber band of demand and production supply needs time to catch up. Also, a large part of the trade deficit growth is an increase of the shipped "value" in electronics.