U.S. manufacturing jobs fading away fast

Yahoo/USA Today ^ | Fri Dec 13, 7:48 AM ET | Barbara Hagenbaugh

[arete]

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Charles Seitz remembers when Rochester was a bustling manufacturing town. Now, all the 58-year-old unemployed engineer sees is a landscape of empty buildings.

''There's nothing made here anymore,'' the former Eastman Kodak employee says, his eyes welling with tears as he talks about his struggle to find a new job. ''Wealth is really created by making things. I still adhere to that.''

It's a situation that's been playing out across the country for decades but has received increased attention in recent years.

Fifty years ago, a third of U.S. employees worked in factories, making everything from clothing to lipstick to cars. Today, a little more than one-tenth of the nation's 131 million workers are employed by manufacturing firms. Four-fifths are in services.

The decline in manufacturing jobs has swiftly accelerated since the beginning of 2000. Since then, more than 1.9 million factory jobs have been cut -- about 10% of the sector's workforce. During the same period, the number of jobs outside manufacturing has risen close to 2%.

Many of the factory jobs are being cut as companies respond to a sharp rise in global competition. Unable to raise prices -- and often forced to cut them -- companies must find any way they can to reduce costs and hang onto profits.

Jobs are increasingly being moved abroad as companies take advantage of lower labor costs and position themselves to sell products to a growing -- and promising -- market abroad. Economy.com, an economic consulting firm in West Chester, Pa., estimates 1.3 million manufacturing jobs have been moved abroad since the beginning of 1992 -- the bulk coming in the last three years. Most of those jobs have gone to Mexico and East Asia.

Last month, film giant Eastman Kodak -- the largest employer in Rochester and the central focus of the community since the company was founded by George Eastman in 1888 -- announced it was shutting down an area plant and laying off the 500 employees who make single-use, sometimes called ''throw-away,'' cameras. The work will now be done in China or Mexico, two countries where the company already has operations.

The movement of jobs to other countries angers Seitz the most.

''The United States got to where it is today by making things,'' he says. ''People are suffering, and communities are suffering.''

[Old Professer]

So let Mexico and China have the throw-away camera market. I stopped using them years ago with the advent of digital cameras. For about 10 thow-away cameras that take crappy pictures one could probably buy a cheap digital camera that takes better pictures which cost much less to store than the cost of film processing for the throw-aways. So, what's the big fuss about?

Apparently, you're not a serious student of photography; even the single-use cameras are capturing more detail than any digital camera and this won't change - a series of connecting dots, no matter how small and how many can't fill the lost space between the touching arcs, while a film camera has emulsion over the entire surface of the film.

Digital camera are great for composing and can attach directly to a PC for distribution, but they do not take better pictures than film cameras.

[MineralMan]

You're right. The Gateway Country Stores were a huge mistake on Gateway's part. Lots of money to build and staff, and they don't even sell computers most of the time. You go there and order one, then it's shipped to you from Gateway. Silliness. I know they're selling more stuff in the stores now, but that was their original plan.

I know three folks who went to the local GCS, found out they couldn't take their computer home with them, and promptly went across the mall to the Best Buy and got a computer they could use that afternoon. Stupid Gateway!

[Snoopers-868th]

My sentiments exactly and I have not seen this response enough. Globalization is bringing our country "down" to level the playing field for the world. It isn't about politics--it is about money and influence and always has been. John Doe is only fodder, without us they have no success. They want us to own property and pay taxes so we have the incentive and the fear of losing something. They want us "dependant" both parties either through welfare or through jobs. It keeps us in line and them holding the power over us. With no assets John Doe is free to move about unencumbered and has nothing at stake. If we loose our right to bear arms they will finally have us at their mercy...

[RLK]

I am still waiting for the day that a strong conservative steps forward to lead those of us that are not in love with the establishment socialists.

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I'm afraid we are going to wait a long time. Issues are created, and candidates are created, in the leftist media. When Bush was anncounced to be thr frontrunner more than a year before the election we were being fed a line which many people swallowed. We finally ended up with the illusion of choice in the two half-wits fed to us by the left.

[Karsus]

What areas of the economy are those that we do best?

[TJC]

Your right, as far as I'm concerned. The Unions run by the rat party cause more damage than any other factor.

[cynicom]

RLK...

Lust for power.. It knows no bounds. As long as people "believe" they are electing the man of their choice, everything will be fine.

[RLK]

Give the U.S. another 20 years, and that may be considered a good living standard.

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It wont take that long.

[txhurl]

I voted for him and could kill myself for it. I helped put Clinton in office.

[elbucko]

"Perot was... I voted for him and am pround of it.

Perot was a G*ddamn idiot and so are you!

[RLK]

Who is responsible for the loss of manufacturing jobs in the USA? One word answer: UNIONS!

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That's a lie.

[arete]

The Unions run by the rat party cause more damage than any other factor.

The unions are our secret weapon. We're going to send the AFL/CIO to China and really screw things up for them.

Richard W.

[Ben Ficklin]

The threat to Gateway existed before the stores. The stores, and the service they were intended to provide, was supposedly a solution. Service is rarely costly.

Had Gateway had a local store when I bought, I would have bought from them. As it was, I had to buy some training in addition to the Dell.

[RLK]

If he hadn't acted like the guys in the white coats were constantly chasing him he might have made it.

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A great superficial one-liner. You out to be on Saturday Night Live with Owlgore. However, I don't think I want you doing my thinking and interpretation for me.

[Karsus]

Yea! Damn the unions and their H1B visa program!!!

[Karsus]

Who is responsible for the loss of tech jobs? Almost all tech jobs are non union. Why are the leaving?

[elbucko]

I think right now we're living off the accumulated wealth of the past 50 years. But we're bleeding badly...

Exactly. We are now living high on the hog off the principal rather than the interest.

[RLK]

I'm surprised that anyone has noticed since it's only been going on for about the past 45 years. This is the "Quote of the Day"!

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No it shouldn't. It's a stupid wisecrack contradicted by fact.

[RLK]

they do not take better pictures than film cameras.

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An electronic system is calibrated in dots or pilils per inch. A color film reaches detail in terms of molecules per inch. Electronic systems cand reach 1/100th the detail of good color film.

[RLK]

What areas of the economy are those that we do best? Rock and Roll. Law suits. Drug use.