I guess I'm on a little bit of a manufacturing jag because of being so discouraged about last week's jobs numbers. Just to give you an idea of what I mean, Pennsylvania lost 97,600 "goods-producing" jobs between August 2009 and August 2008. During that same period, 93,900 service jobs were lost. Of the 97,600 goods-producing jobs, 73,500 were in manufacturing. Just to give you an idea, that's about 10,000 more jobs more than the entire populations of Norristown, Doylestown, West Chester and Media combined-- the local suburban county seats. Nationally, manufacturing lost 51,000 jobs in the month of September, alone.
"Pennsylvania has lost more than one-quarter of its manufacturing jobs in eight years and 50,000 factories in the last decade," Scott N. Paul, executive director of Alliance for American Manufacturing, told the Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board on Monday. One problem, he said, is that students coming out of schools are not prepared to take on skilled manufacturing jobs. Well, if the jobs aren't there, why train for them? However, if the workforce isn't there, the investment won't be either.
One solution might be to require public works projects to use American-made goods, even if it does come with a higher price tag. But how should one then balance the interests of taxpayers in lower taxes against the interests of businesses that would benefit by getting lucrative contracts? That was a question from one of our editorial board members. It was a good question. Paul's answer was that there should be some kind of cap -- if the difference between a foreign-made item and a local item is more than 20 percent, for example, then the requirement would be waived.
The Alliance for American Manufacturing is a combined management and union enterprise advocating for manufacturing.
The company I work for has a marketing opportunity that could save 10,000 Pennsylvania jobs plus generate $10 million in revenue for the city of Philadelphia at no cost to the city. My boss has called and mailed letters about this to the mayor and his staff without the courtesy of a reply. So you go figure who really cares about the average hard working individual.— ritaf
Every day for 60 days, Inquirer staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen profiled someone from the ranks of the region’s unemployed.
-
Cold winter for the jobless
- Ranks of long-term jobless are growing.
-
How a printing plant failed
- Big gambles and bad decisions, oil prices and credit crises, even a New Zealand tycoon: All played a role in Downingtown.
- Jobless60
- February
- January
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
