U.S. manufacturers across the country have suffered dramatic job losses over the past seven years of economic growth, with these losses falling particularly hard on states that are heavily dependent on manufacturing and are now suffering the most as the U.S. economy struggles to cope with the housing crisis and slowing economic growth.
Overall employment growth and declines in the number of unemployed were smaller in manufacturing states than in non-manufacturing states—even before the current economic slowdown occurred. This leaves manufacturing states in a more precarious economic situation today, and in more desperate need of an economic recovery plan than non-manufacturing states.
The Center for American Progress has formulated several policy proposals that would improve the situation of the manufacturing sector, including increased investment in renewable energy to help to create more good jobs in the future, enhanced public and private initiatives to promote innovation and skills for the jobs of the future.
More information about this and other manufacturing-related policy proposals can be found in our Progressive Growth Series. These policy papers offer a fiscally responsible plan to grow our economy through the transformation to a low-carbon economy and leadership in innovation, technology, and science, and to recreate a ladder of economic mobility so that Americans may make a better life for themselves and their families so that our nation once again may be a land with a thriving and expanding middle class prospering in the global economy.
Read the full article here.