U.S. Factories Buck Decline

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: The Wall Street Journal

U.S. manufacturing, viewed as a lost cause by many Americans, has begun creating more jobs than it eliminates for the first time in more than a decade.

As the economy recovered and big companies began upgrading old factories or building new ones, the number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. last year grew 1.2%, or 136,000, the first increase since 1997, government data show. That total will grow again this year, according to economists at IHS Global Insight and Moody's Analytics.

Among others, major auto makers—both domestic and transplants—are hiring. Ford Motor Co. announced last week it planned to add 7,000 workers over the next two years.

The economists' projections for this year—calling for a gain of about 2.5%, or 330,000 manufacturing jobs—won't come close to making up for the nearly six million lost since 1997. But manufacturing should be at least a modest contributor to total U.S. employment in the next couple of years, these economists say.



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704029704576088412618821224.html

[Thav]

1. Hot damn, keep it up domestic manufacturing!

And remember, try to buy things that say "Made in the USA." It's the only way jobs will be created in the US.

[Lucky Luciano]

2. I guess wages plus transportation and tax costs ate equalizing with china.

[No Elephants]

9. Rolaids, anyone?

[rhett o rick]

3. Problem is they are hiring at 50% of previous wages. Corp profits up, wages down.

And the rich are calling it an economic recovery.

"The UAW’s 2007 contracts with GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC allow the company’s to hire new employees at $14.50 per hour.

The standard contract wage in $29. In addition, the benefit packages for second tier workers is also limited."

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2010/10/15/business/doc4cb904115f67d027927556.txt?viewmode=2

[No Elephants]

10. "And the rich are calling it an economic recovery." In public

In private, they say "We loves us some plutonomy," then giggle a lot.

[RussBLib]

4. Anyone else notice?

These companies seem to only add jobs during Democratic administrations, and I thought that only Republicans were good fer bidniss.

[liberal N proud]

7. I saw a chart once where that has happened historically since WWII

I cannot find it

[elleng]

5. GREAT STORY! Buy Whirlpool!

'Whirlpool Corp., which has 39 factories world-wide, including nine in the U.S., had a tough decision to make last year. Parts of its oven and cooktop factory complex in Cleveland, Tenn., are more than 100 years old. The labyrinthine layout of the plant, built on a slope and cobbled together over the past century, requires a fleet of more than 100 forklifts to shuttle products along ramps connecting 13 different levels. Temperatures sometimes top 100 degrees inside the plant, which has no air conditioning. Alan Holaday, who heads North American manufacturing for Whirlpool, calls the plant "an industrial museum."

One obvious option was to move production of the cooking appliances to Mexico, where Whirlpool already has several factories and where its South Korean rivals make some of their cooking products. But, after months of study, Whirlpool decided in mid-2010 to spend $120 million on a new plant in Cleveland, a few miles from the old one, in what will be the company's first new U.S. factory since the mid-1990s. Whirlpool projects that its work force in Cleveland will grow to 1,630 within about two years from 1,500 now as production increases.

Although labor costs would be lower in Mexico, Whirlpool found lots of reasons to stay in the Cleveland area. It already had a trained work force there and wouldn't need to pay severance costs. Freight costs would be lower since most of the plant's products are sold in the U.S. Tennessee also looked safer than Mexico, which has been beset with drug-related violence. And state and local governments were willing to kick in about $30 million of incentives—including grants and property tax breaks—if Whirlpool stayed in the area. Most of the new jobs at the Whirlpool plant will be for assemblers, a spokeswoman said.'

[BobbyBoring]

6. ummmmmmmmmmmm

Consider the source WSJ??

[Freddie Stubbs]

8. So, you think that the WSJ is trying to make things look good to help Obama politically?