A recent study says it’s not cheap imports that are to blame as much as it is simple progress in how we make things.
While cheap imports have affected local steelmakers, the main culprit in overall factory job losses is increasing automation in factories, according to the study by Conexus Indiana and Ball State University.
"Overwhelmingly, the largest impact is productivity. Almost 88 percent of job losses in manufacturing in recent years can be attributable to productivity growth, and the long-term changes to manufacturing employment are mostly linked to the productivity of American factories," Ball State Professors Michael Hicks and Srikant […]
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