This year’s factory construction boom precedes a job explosion, analysts predict.
Goldman Sachs analysts expect manufacturing jobs to grow by 200,000 to 250,000 over the next two years and factory construction to rise 10 to 15% through the end of 2023, the investment banking firm reported this week.
This forecast builds on the growth that the Biden administration has already extolled. In June, the Treasury Department announced a “striking surge” in factory construction, which has doubled since the end of 2021. Meanwhile, private companies have invested $503 billion in U.S. manufacturing across a wide swath of industries and regions since President Biden took office.
As the president has hammered home in his early re-election speeches, this growth is in good part attributable to the Biden administration’s landmark laws: the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
However, this year’s factory boom has yet to yield substantial job growth, as stagnant numbers in this year’s jobs reports for the sector show. But, if you build it, they will come. As the laws stand, the IRA tax credit incentives will stay in place for 10 years and CHIPS Act funding will be allotted over five years.
“So I think this is going to be a sustained boom in manufacturing, probably for the next 10 years. I mean, that’s the life of the tax credits in the law,” said Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Rick Newman in a recent story about the Goldman Sachs report in reference to the IRA.
On the IRA’s one-year anniversary this past week, Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul called the legislation a “crucial step toward realizing our nation’s manufacturing leadership,” but cautioned that there’s more work left to be done. He said:
“The IRA is just a first step. We have a marathon ahead of us as we establish the domestic clean energy manufacturing capacity that assures our economic prosperity and national security. Trade enforcement is also critical to ensure American workers and manufacturers can compete globally in the face of China’s unfair trade tactics. Passage of the Leveling the Playing Field Act 2.0 is a good place to start.”
As much as the Biden administration has achieved in advancing an American manufacturing renaissance, all that progress could easily be undone by China’s continued trade cheating. Trade enforcement is the critical next step to strengthening America’s manufacturing base. Luckily, there’s legislation currently under consideration in Congress that would equip U.S. workers with the trade tools they need to compete.
The Leveling the Playing Field Act 2.0, which was introduced by bipartisan sponsors in both the House and Senate in June, would create a new type of anti-dumping/countervailing duty that makes it easier for petitioners to initiate new trade cases when repeat offenders shift production to another country.
Join us in telling Congress to support the Leveling the Playing Field Act 2.0!
