A guest post by AAM intern Whitney Stack:

A report by the Department of Labor projects that the U.S. will lose 1.2 million manufacturing jobs by 2018. A report by the Department of Labor projects that the U.S. will lose 1.2 million manufacturing jobs by 2018. The department’s dark prediction follows the trend of the recent decade during which millions manufacturing jobs disappeared or were off-shored. The nation has lost more than 40,000 manufacturing plants and one-third of its manufacturing jobs, nearly six million, over the past dozen years. China is on the verge of overtaking the U.S. in manufacturing output, and Americans know it. A poll conducted by The Mellman Group in late April, 2010, for the Alliance for American Manufacturing, found 58 percent of 1,000 likely voters believed America’s economy is no longer number one. The Department of Labor offers predictions, but any forecast for the future may be changed. Democrats in Congress are working to do that with their new “Make It in America” campaign. Among the bills the House already passed calls for developing a National Manufacturing Strategy to promote manufacturing in America and save American manufacturing jobs. Democrats in the House also plan to examine foreign currency manipulation, which undercuts American manufacturers. In addition, the House is examining saving American manufacturing jobs by enforcing of fair trade regulations. That would help prevent foreign countries from illegally dumping underpriced goods on the U.S. market. Without change, millions of manufacturing jobs will be lost, as the Labor Department forecasts. But with the right strategy, legislation and regulation enforcement, manufacturers will continue to make it in America.