Policies cause manufacturing jobs

Source: Manufacturing Digital

Date :18/09/2007 08:47:07

NAM says the employment report from the Department of Labor reflects the continuing bi-partisan inability of leaders in Washington to craft sensible, pro-growth policies.

The Labor Department reported that the economy lost 4,000 jobs in August, as the 64,000 jobs lost in construction and manufacturing more than cancelled out the 60,000 jobs gained in the service sector. Over the past three months, private sector employment growth has averaged just 71,000 which is the slowest pace in four years. Manufacturing lost 46,000 jobs in August.

“The fact that manufacturing lost 46,000 jobs in August is not a partisan problem, not a Democrat or Republican problem, but a problem for the 46,000 families that have lost work and hope in the future,” says NAM President John Engler. “We need to all come together to fix this. Congress must step up to the plate, recognize the impact of decisions it has made in the past that make America less competitive, and do something about it.”

“Overall manufacturing employment has fallen by 215,000 in the last 12 months, the largest 12-month drop in three years,” says NAM chief economist David Huether. “Up until this month, most of the loss of manufacturing jobs was in motor vehicles or sectors closely tied to housing, but in today’s report, the decline of manufacturing jobs was more broad-based.”

NAM Senior Vice President for Policy Jay Timmons said the loss of manufacturing jobs is a direct result of Washington’s failure to address the external costs that make it unnecessarily expensive to create jobs. “There is no great mystery to this,” Timmons said. “We have carefully documented that the external costs imposed on U.S. manufacturing for energy, excess litigation, regulation, taxes and health care add 31.7 percent to the cost of production in this country compared to our major trading partners. That is a severe disadvantage that has helped kill more than 3 million U.S. manufacturing jobs in this decade.

“Manufacturing jobs pay a lot more than jobs in the service sector,” Timmons said. “Those 46,000 manufacturing jobs lost in August represent 46,000 families in distress. But right now the best our leaders in Congress can do is debate creative ways to make energy even more expensive than it is already. There is a disconnect between Washington and the real world outside the Beltway, and the real world is paying the price.”