This morning, the Department of Labor reported that America's manufacturing sector grew by 28,000 jobs in July.
The #AAMeter, which tracks President Obama's promise to create 1 million new manufacturing jobs in his second term, now stands at +195,000 jobs. This is only the second time in the president's second term that monthly manufacturing job growth has met or exceeded the pace needed to meet his goal.
Said Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) President Scott Paul:
"Manufacturing punched above its weight in July, showing that a rebound in the sector is possible. But we still have a long way to go. While the private sector has recovered all the jobs lost during the Great Recession, manufacturing is only 30 percent of the way back, and there are many obstacles that stand in the way of a true resurgence: a paucity of investment in our infrastructure, high trade deficits, and currency manipulation by countries like China and Japan.
"It’s important for Congress and the administration to get the policy right so that we’ll have more to cheer about. The significance of the auto sector and its supply chain was amplified by the July jobs numbers, accounting for more than half of manufacturing job gains. To keep this sector healthy and vibrant, we should build on that by ensuring that trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership prohibit currency manipulation."
Read a new op-ed by Scott Paul in The Huffington Post, 'Is What I saw in Detroit America's Future?'
The #AAMeter.
President Obama set a goal of creating 1 million new manufacturing jobs in his second term. To follow the president's progress, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) maintains a manufacturing jobs tracker, the #AAMeter, based on monthly jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.