It’s interesting what data one can find when perusing the Internet.  ManufactureThis was looking at overall U.S. employment this morning, trying to find manufacturing job levels going back to World War II or so. We found an interesting chart on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website.  It shows how total U.S. employment has climbed slowly but steadily since 1958, with dips during the recessions of 1961, 1975, 1982, 1991, and 2002. Manufacturing plays an interesting part in this picture.  In 1958, there were 14,656,000 Americans employed by the manufacturing sector, fully 28.5% of the total U.S. goods-producing workforce of 51,426,000 people.   In the years since 1958, manufacturing saw a steady increase in employment before leveling out in the 80’s and 90’s.  Curiously, manufacturing employment stayed roughly the same in the 1990’s, and even gained jobs during four different years, despite massive gains in both productivity and technology.  Some argue that the U.S. is losing manufacturing jobs solely because of productivity gains and technology.  Ie. increased productivity has made some workers obsolete.  If that were the case, though, how does one explain the very steady employment levels in the 90s, but not in the 00s? Perhaps that’s because productivity isn’t the main issue.  No, a fundamental shift in U.S. trade policy over the past decade has allowed subsidized foreign competition to continually erode U.S. manufacturing.  In fact,  a quick look at another chart (from the U.S. Census Bureau) shows that the U.S. trade deficit has mushroomed in that time from $31 billion in 1991, to $166 billion in 1998, and now to $700 billion in 2007—an indicator of just how seriously the picture has changed.   American workers are the most productive in the world.  But even they can not compete with illegal trade practices on the part of our trading partners.  When Beijing artificially devalues its currency to boost exports, for example, American manufacturers and their workers pay the price. Sadly, there are less Americans employed in manufacturing now than there were 50 years ago.  In 2007, manufacturing employment fell to13,884,000, only 10% of the total 137,623,000 goods-producing workforce. These vanishing manufacturing jobs paid well and helped build the U.S. middle class.  They represent productive, skilled employment in the assembly of goods that the U.S. consumed in both peacetime and war to become the leading First World economy.  Without a serious re-think of U.S. trade policy U.S. manufacturing will continue to lose out to the mercantilism of other nations. It’s worth a minute to look at the BLS chart.  It offers a fascinating time capsule look at the changing face of America.