Clunking along at the bottom October 3, 2009

Richard McCormack characterizes American manufacturing as “clunking along at the bottom.” Whether you agree with his assessment or not, it’s at least a well-informed opinion. McCormack is Editor and Publisher of Manufacturing and Technology News, a Washington based newsletter, and covers the manufacturing beat at a pretty high level. More importantly, he has numbers to back him up. Here’s a few that caught my eye:

Manufacturing as a percentage of GDP

• 1999: 17.0%
• 2008: 11.5%

Manufacturing Workers

• 1999: 17,303,000
• 2009: 11,771,000

Machine Tool Production

• Japan 2008: $15.8 billion (first place annually)
• US 2008: $3.8 billion (seventh place globally)

US machine Tool Consumption

• July 2007: $334 million
• July 2008: $150 million

US Production of Solar Photovoltaics

• 414 megawatts, or 5.6% of global output

His solution? It’s a battle between low-wage unskilled workers and higher wage knowledge workers. He says we’ll win!

It’s what you know.

Tom
www.lc.edu/ccl