Posted on 05/11/2011 8:54:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Is America turning into a nation of hamburger flippers from a nation of workers who make things, like machine tool operators?
Answer: No, says economist Ed Yardeni, in light of the recent April jobs report. And that's good news.
Payrolls rose by 244,000 in April, following gains of 221,000 and 235,000 the previous two months. Some have debated whether a quarter of the increase in private payrolls, 62,000 new jobs, came from McDonald’s (MCD) hiring more Big Mac flippers. McDonald's went on a hiring spree recently, but those numbers will likely affect the May jobs report. Still, food services and similar general merchandise stores added 54,200 jobs in April.
However, Yardeni notes that manufacturing payrolls rose by 29,000 during April and 141,000 so far this year. And that’s a good thing, because “a machine tool operator makes more than a hamburger flipper,” Yardeni notes.
And this is why media pundits have to stop with the doom and gloom talk and stop beating up on the U.S. economy.
I’ve been reading how, standing on its own, U.S. manufacturing would rank today as the sixth largest economy in the world, just behind France and ahead of Italy, Mexico and South Korea. And I've been reading how U.S. manufacturing output was $2.155 trillion (including mining and utilities), according to estimates by Mark Perry, an economics professor at the University of Michigan.
Guess what? That's about 27% higher than China's manufacturing output! I thought China was creaming us here?
Nope. China's manufacturing output was $1.7 trillion in 2010, the latest data available, says IHS Global Insight. China's manufacturing makes up about a third of its economy, whereas it makes up just around 13% in the U.S.
The U.S. still accounted for more than 20% of total global manufacturing output in 2009,
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
So where is the context? What was our share of the total global manufacturing in 2000? 1990? 1980?
Yes, we certainly are.
How many previously skilled workers are now working cash registers?
Too many.
People are worried about nothing?
is that the message?
I think going down to the local store of choice and trying to find something U.S. made is a much more accurate measure than by dollars, but that is just my opinion.
20%? YAHOO!
The manufacturing jobs in America today are equal to the amount we had in 1940, and we have three times as many people.
Considering that we have 1/18 of the world’s population producing 1/5 of the finished goods is frankly remarkable. As for the jobs, welcome to technology. The vast majority of manufacturing processes are automated now, part of how we can make so much with so few people is because is because so much is done by machines. In spite of the Latin root of the word manufacturing is no longer done by hand.
A good counterpoint to the environutzos who say “America is less than 5% of the world population - but consumes 25% of its resources.”
Yeah, we also produce 20% of the worlds manufactured goods.
Same happened with agriculture, it now takes one person to literally produce the same output as it took hundreds of laborers at the turn of the 20th century. Over half of jobs were once tied to agriculture, now it’s less than 1 percent.
It says 20% of global manufacturing, not jobs. I assume with automation there are a lot less workers doing more work than back in the day.
There are not enough strong people left with a sense of independence to fight off this disease. There are no jobs to support them. Just this trickle of crap jobs from these socialists! They are totally destroying a strong job base by design to kill independence and individualism.
This is something to shout about?
Behind France and ahead of Italy?
More McJobs for McMorons!
[In spite of the Latin root of the word manufacturing is no longer done by hand.]
Here’s the problem, robotized manufacturing is energy dependent. We are thus susceptable to energy squeezes.
RE: This is something to shout about?
Behind France and ahead of Italy?
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That’s just the manufacturing PORTION of the US Economy vs the ENTIRE economy of France and Italy. It does not include the other non-manufacturing portion of the US economy.
Yeah, but we have FAR more automation in manufacturing today than we did back then - meaning MUCH higher productivity per-worker. Manual labor in manufacturing today is limited to specific markets.
Watch "How It's Made" on The Science Channel and you'll get a good idea of the huge percentage of today's goods that are made today by machines vs. humans.
This is not to say we don't still have big economic problems - but manufacturing output/productivity in the U.S. can't be measured by the number of jobs like it used to.
Yup, technology is a force enhancer, which is cool if you make money on the output, but can blow if you make money making the output.
Hand manufacturing is energy dependent also. Hard to weld in the dark, with no power to the welder.
Im sure a trade war would boost these figures. Regardless what manufacturing was in the 1960s we are here now. Our future depends on exports and Germany has a trade surplus with China. Yes, Germany. Those German workers are not living in mud huts eating grass to compete with Chineses as Trump or Perot (and other liberals) would indicate.
We have also increased our population dramatically with immigrants since the late 1990s. During that period up till 2007 or 2008 the conventional wisdom was the US would always have a shortage of workers, skilled and unskilled. That was an major argument for amnesty in 2007.
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