Tag: manufactur

America’s 25 Dying Industries

Valued at nearly $20 trillion, the U.S. economy is the largest in the world. Maintaining a competitive edge necessitates remaining diversified and dynamic. While this means that some U.S. industries thrive, others inevitably decline or are rendered obsolete.

As certain industries fade, so do hundreds of thousands of American jobs. 24/7 Wall St. analyzed employment figures from 2006 to 2015 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to determine the 25 fastest dying industries. Employment in each industry on this list declined by at least 43%, and in the top two by at least 80%.

At least one of three broad factors […]

China isn’t the only reason Americans are losing manufacturing jobs

China isn't the only reason Americans are losing manufacturing jobs

Protectionism has grown quite popular as American workers continue to worry about losing jobs to other countries.

And politicians zeroed in on these anxieties as they vied for the top job in the White House during the 2016 campaign. President-elect Donald Trump in particular made the debate over free trade one of the central topics of his campaign after criticizing China, Mexico, and Japan.

Although there is empirical evidence suggesting that increased trade with China actually did cause some big problems for American workers, it’s not the only factor that has affected the manufacturing sector. Automation has also been a contributor.In […]

At Boeing’s 777X wing factory, robots get big jobs

At Boeing's 777X wing factory, robots get big jobs

As the first 110-footlong wing skin panel for Boeing’s new 777X jet moved slowly across a mammoth new factory building one recent morning, a small crew walked alongside, watching for any possibility of an expensive collision.

The "spotters" escorted the panel’s bright-orange transport platform as it followed invisible tracks embedded in the concrete floor and slid with a tight fit into the big cylindrical autoclave where the part would bake to hardness.

Until the automated system for moving these big wing parts is proved, "we do have four people watching it," said Darrell Chic, acting director of 777X wing fabrication. "But […]

Manufacturing Goes Where the Robots Are

Manufacturing Goes Where the Robots Are

In the eight months since engineer John Crews’ book on the robot future hit shelves, the global political climate has changed so drastically that Robonomics now reads like an outsider political treatise. The survey of the fourth industrial revolution explores a heavily automated future in which governments supply citizens with basic income and concerns about job loss are couched in broader conversations about ending scarcity and the socio-economic problems it presents. It’s a coherent vision of progress, but one that does jibe with the results of the US presidential election or the Brexit vote, both of which galvanized a […]

Economists Doubt the U.S. Can Regain Many of the Factory Jobs Lost in Recent Decades

Economists Doubt the U.S. Can Regain Many of the Factory Jobs Lost in Recent Decades

An employee places shirts ready for shipment in plastic bags at the 5 Thread facility… Pulling off a renaissance in U.S. manufacturing employment will be extraordinarily tough.

After hitting a record of nearly 20 million in 1979, the number of American factory workers has plunged during each of the last five recessions and each time has never recovered. Today, 12.3 million people are employed in U.S. factories, a loss of nearly eight million jobs.

Forecasters in The Wall Street Journal’s monthly survey of economists doubt the numbers of bygone years can be restored. They estimate the U.S. will add about 7,000 […]

Carrier & The Broken Window Narrative

Carrier & The Broken Window Narrative

Lance Roberts Trump saves jobs in Indiana before even being President. This is how you make ‘America Great Again. Between promises to cut corporate taxes from 35% to 15%, reduce regulatory burdens and penalize companies who leave the U.S., markets, economists and analysts are all trying to figure out what it means. As I noted on Tuesday , the always-bullish analysts are already pushing up corporate earnings to record levels while the mainstream media is fostering the idea of an economic resurgence to levels last seen during the Reagan Administration. In turn, this will result in higher inflation, higher […]

Automation destroyed 20 million manufacturing jobs

Summary:
I am becoming increasingly frustrated by all the articles I’m reading about how trade is supposedly decimating jobs in US manufacturing. I went to the FRED data set, and they have manufacturing output (real) going back to the first quarter of 1987. So let’s start there. Their series shows total manufacturing output rising from 69.789 in 1987 to 129.129 in the most recent quarter. That’s an 85% gain. At the same time, manufacturing employment has fallen, from 17.499 million to 12.275 million. This represents a decline from 17.3% of total employment to only 8.5% of total employment. […]

Technology is coming for your retail jobs

Technology is coming for your retail jobs

Amazon recently unveiled a new type of grocery store — one that doesn’t require cashiers at all. Called Amazon Go, the brick-and-mortar location uses sensors and gates to automatically identify what you bought, calculate your total and charge you for your purchases when you leave. It gets rids of pesky long lines in front of cashiers or self-checkout kiosks, but also more or less eradicates the need for checkout counters altogether.

While that’s exciting for loathers of long lines (like me), it also sounds like it could cause a decline in employment, just as automation wiped out millions of manufacturing […]

Sorry Luddites, Amazon Go Will Be a Huge Job Creator

Sorry Luddites, Amazon Go Will Be a Huge Job Creator

The majority of alarmist headlines yesterday were all about Seattle, WA-based Amazon’s latest profit-making venture. Expanding its operations into the grocery space, the retailer is set to open stores sans checkout clerks. Upon entry in Amazon Go stores set to be opened to the public in the next year, customers will choose items for purchase only to be billed electronically. The days of long checkout lines may well be over with if the experiment succeeds.

Readers can probably imagine that what’s great for the customer is apparently not great for the typical American worker if traditional media are to be […]

This Is The Hidden Challenge In The Future Of Work

This Is The Hidden Challenge In The Future Of Work

[Photo: Rawpixel/iStock] On the heels of a mostly positive jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) (4.6% unemployment is the lowest it’s been in nine years), the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) released a more sobering snapshot of the world of work.

A briefing by MGI director James Manyika, compiled from the company’s extensive research, took a deeper dive into employment numbers. He writes: In the United States and the 15 core European Union countries (E.U.-15), there are 285 million adults who are not in the labor force—and at least 100 million of them would like to work more. […]