[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?

[Toddsterpatriot]

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

Obviously, we're doomed. Soon we won't even be able to feed ourselves.

In 1890, farming still accounted for nearly 43 percent of all U.S. jobs. But farm jobs had dropped to 17 percent of employment by 1940 and to 1.7 percent by 1960. Today, farm employment seems so insignificant that we only bother to report nonfarm employment.

Where the Jobs Went

[Willie Green]

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

I addressed THAT back in reply #22.
Manufacturing "activity" does not indicate manufacturing sector "expansion".
It only reflects "activity" for those facilities that remain open, NOT the ones that have shut down. As more factories continue to close and move offshore, employment will continue to drop while this index remains skewed to only show "activity" among the remnants.

So what's your point?