[Willie Green]

No, the hard facts are that manufacturing employment fell from 17.263 million in Y2K to 14.379 million in '04.
That's a loss of 2.884 million jobs (16.7%)

[1rudeboy]

Wow, that's almost as much as China lost in the same period!

[Phantom Lord]

No, the hard facts are that manufacturing employment fell from 17.263 million in Y2K to 14.379 million in '04. That's a loss of 2.884 million jobs (16.7%)

Willie, you know you are being dishonest with your reply to me. I said that manufacturing activity increased, not employment in manufacturing.

And China has "lost" more manufacturing jobs than the US over the past 5 years. Who is China losing them too? Or is technology the main reason that fewer jobs are required to produce more goods?

[dakine]

for example:

U.S. Steel production:
1959: 62,124 (thousand short tons)
1998: 102,400 (thousand short tons)

hmmm, must be modernization/efficiency