Despite China's might, US factories maintain edge

[Modbert]

Despite China's might, US factories maintain edge - Yahoo! News

Yet America remains by far the No. 1 manufacturing country. It out-produces No. 2 China by more than 40 percent. U.S. manufacturers cranked out nearly $1.7 trillion in goods in 2009, according to the United Nations.

The story of American factories essentially boils down to this: They've managed to make more goods with fewer workers.

The industry's fortunes are brightening enough that U.S. factories are finally adding jobs after years of shrinking their payrolls. Not a lot. But even a slight increase shows manufacturers are growing more confident. They added 136,000 workers last year — the first net increase since 1997.

What's changed is that U.S. manufacturers have abandoned products with thin profit margins, like consumer electronics, toys and shoes. They've ceded that sector to China, Indonesia and other emerging nations with low labor costs.

Instead, American factories have seized upon complex and expensive goods requiring specialized labor: industrial lathes, computer chips, fighter jets, health care products.

Well it is certainly good to see a net increase in workers for the first time in 13 years.

 

[uscitizen]

Who needs jobs, just more efficient factories.

But it does not change the fact that we went from a creditor nation to a debtor one under Reagan and our economy depends abut 70% on consumer spending not manufacturing.
And if consumers do not have jobs....

 

[Norman]

Fact is US trade deficit is mighty.

So these numbers don't tell much, who knows how much US would manufacture without the chinese goods.

Anyway this certainly does not prove the US in fine shape.

Also economy can not depend on consumer spending, but production. Otherwise it would not even matter if those consumers had jobs - govt could just print money and send them to the consumers. The problem is the production, not the jobs. Obviously at some point the trade deficit is going to reverse itself, and that is a bad day to be american. Consumer spending being main portion of economy just means most of resources are used to make/buy current consumer goods and a lot less is used to find ways to make new better goods.

 

[william the wie]

The question is what is going to happen when the China bubble popping blows up the EU bubble or vice versa? It will take about five years to open automated replacement factories to replace the factories that will close.