Jan
28
Manufacturing Jobs Key to Winning the Future
Those of us in the freshman class elected to Congress in November arrived with a specific objective — getting our economy moving again. However, our goal cannot be mere recovery.
The American people deserve and expect policies that will lead to an economy and job market stronger, more vibrant, and more prosperous than before. To achieve this, we need a renewed focus on sustaining and growing manufacturing — one that centers on rewarding innovation and fostering entrepreneurship, and that ties those great American strengths to a great workforce.
I am encouraged that President Obama chose to highlight high-tech manufacturing competitiveness in his State of the Union address and its potential to create sustainable middle-class jobs. Unlike so many other sectors, with manufacturing it’s not just about generating jobs but generating good jobs that pay a livable wage and provide quality health insurance.
For decades manufacturing jobs have been a reliable path to the middle class for millions of hard-working American families.
But that path is not nearly as wide as it was just ten years ago. Since then, our nation has lost more than three million manufacturing jobs, including nearly two million in 2008 and 2009 alone. As plants shut down, communities are flooded with skilled workers forced to take lower paying, unskilled jobs — oftentimes two or three of them — just to make ends meet.
The truth is, we’re not going to be able to reopen all the plants that have closed and get those workers back on the assembly lines making the same products. What we can and must do is pursue a new manufacturing agenda, one that will lead to the creation of inventive businesses that will open new plants and hire educated workers for skilled and sustainable jobs — one that will produce the next generation of American manufacturers.
While labor-driven commodity manufacturing may have moved to the developing world, we can still remain a world leader in innovative and high-performance manufacturing — as we are today in industries ranging from aircraft to pharmaceuticals. To ensure that we do, our efforts must focus on creating a supportive environment in tax and trade policy, in education and training that matches the strength of American engineering and innovation.
Thankfully, we’re not starting from scratch.
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