Forget outsourcing. Mainstream media naysayers love to parrot the claim that American manufacturing is dead. Columnists like Greg Burns of the Chicago Tribune warn us that “America lost one-third of its industrial work base in the 2000s” and that “there's no industrial renaissance in the offing once the economy starts to recover” — an easy message to sell, if you ignore the sophistication of American manufacturing and focus only on its size.[1]

It's a false assumption to equate job losses with the death of an entire industry. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) reports that in spite of declining employment levels, productivity in American manufacturing skyrocketed by 94 percent during the past two decades — more than double the productivity growth in other sectors. We're doing more with less. Behind its Titanic-like public image, American manufacturing is a driving force in economic growth across the country.

According to NAM, the United States is the world's second-largest exporter, and manufacturing accounts for 61 percent of American exports — twice as much as they did 10 years ago. And these aren't low-skill, minimum-wage jobs. Manufacturing actually outperforms other industries in compensation, with salaries averaging more than $65,000 a year.

Manufacturing also sustains the economy as a whole. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that every job in manufacturing creates three more jobs in related areas like retail and distribution. This cross-sector ripple effect has fueled economic recovery across the country, as recent studies suggest. The Associated Press found that manufacturing-dense counties experienced lower economic stress levels in 2009, even as the national average rose by 7 percent.

As manufacturing jobs have fallen in number, they've risen in quality. The most successful companies provide an added value for customers — such as superior expertise or service — by leveraging their investment in skilled American workers. Unable to keep up with recent growth in demand for their products, manufacturers are starting to bring back workers they laid off earlier in the year. Jayco Inc., an Indiana-based RV company, rehired 200 laid-off workers after an unexpected sales spike last summer.[2] They're still struggling to meet demand.

The jobs we outsourced to China aren't the 21st century jobs that will drive our transition into a sustainable, green society. We need to fill high-tech manufacturing jobs that catalyze innovation in sectors like health care, transportation and renewable energy. But Burns is right about one thing: “Companies routinely complain about their difficulties attracting U.S. workers with the skills they need, saying that lucrative 21st century jobs routinely go unfilled for lack of skilled applicants.”[3] And that's why, more than ever, we need to focus on education.

The Skills Gap

One coalition is acutely aware of the skilled workforce shortage across the United States. Manufacturers, government officials, educators, community leaders, and local residents flocked to two conferences held by the Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council (CMRC) this year. Although the Renaissance Council's goal is to promote advanced manufacturing, the discussion topic at their events always finds its way back to education.

U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky delivered a keynote address at the CMRC's November conference, “Green Collar Jobs and Building a High-Tech Green Economy,” where she stressed the importance of workforce development. “I had a roundtable on nanotechnology,” she says, “and heard about all of the workers they're going to need in these … companies. I'm not talking about post-doc people. I'm talking about people who get a certificate from Oakton Community College … Our country needs and will continue to need investment in new technologies, and in industries and products and workforce to go with them.”

A cornucopia of business opportunities exists in green manufacturing. Dan Swinney, executive director, CMRC, emphasized the “production side” of the green economy. “We're talking about really mastering the making of complex things that will most directly impact the environment and will impact every aspect of life — we have to see that connection,” Swinney says. He highlights the unmet demand in wind energy, where the wait for a highly specialized turbine component can take several years.

The problem isn't demand so much as capacity. A NAM survey of 800 manufacturers nationwide showed that 80 percent of respondents were experiencing a shortage of qualified workers, with 90 percent reporting shortages of skilled production employees such as machinists, operators, craft workers and technicians. The survey also exposed workforce shortages in problem-solving, communication and engineering skills.

“In order to stay globally competitive and lead technological innovation, we need a world-class educational system,” Swinney says. “We must ensure that our young people are learning the math, science, and problem-solving skills they'll need to become leaders in the 21st century.” That's why the CMRC took matters into its own hands in 2007, founding an innovative high school that's fast emerging a national model for college and career-prep education.

A New Vision

Austin Polytechnical Academy (APA) is Chicago's first and only manufacturing-focused public high school. By leveraging partnerships with local manufacturers, APA exposes students to a broad range of career opportunities in the industry, from design and production to marketing and business strategy. The school also boasts a new Manufacturing Technology Center, where students will earn industry-recognized manufacturing credentials to give them an edge in the job market. APA is located in the city's west side neighborhood of Austin, a former manufacturing stronghold that suffered as a result of deindustrialization in recent decades.

On the 2008 campaign trail in Dayton, Ohio, then-Sen. Barack Obama highlighted the school as an educational breakthrough. “Thanks to a partnership with a number of companies, a curriculum that prepares students for a career in engineering, and a requirement that students graduate with at least two industry certifications,” Obama said, “Austin Polytech is bringing hope back to the community. That's the kind of model we'll replicate across the country when I'm president of the United States.”

Direct replication of the Austin Polytech model is already underway with the Chicago Academy for Advanced Technology, which focuses on 21st century leadership skills like critical thinking, technology and communication. The schools' industry-driven career programs have drawn the attention of national players like U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, Microsoft Corp. and Northwestern University.

In order to maintain our competitive edge in high-tech manufacturing — and to develop greener production methods and energy sources — we must invest in partnerships, technologies, and curricula that prepare our graduates for the ever-changing innovation economy. Unfortunately, the widespread misperception of American manufacturing as dead-end manual labor threatens the success of high schools like Austin Polytech. Math and science education has suffered, and students are entering high school with fewer skills and less awareness about technical fields than they did a generation ago. In order to inspire young Americans to lead the world in green technologies and innovation, we have to reach them sooner.

More importantly, we need to update the national dialogue around manufacturing. If left unchecked, the “manufacturing is dead” hysteria could become a self-fulfilling prophesy, turning off countless students to the idea of a technical career, and sucking manufacturers dry of much-needed talent. Students need to understand that a job in manufacturing means designing, building, and marketing the innovative products that will help us solve the environmental crisis — or in other words, saving the planet with computers and robots. What middle school science whiz wouldn't want that job? But it's up to our educational system to plant the dream and help it grow.

Ingrid Gonçalves is the director of communications at the Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council. For more information, visit www.chicagomanufacturing.org.

End Notes

[1] Greg Burns, “Manufacturing won't solve next decade's job woes,” Chicago Tribune, Dec. 7, 2009
2 Mike Baker, “AP: Manufacturing areas lead surprise job comeback,” Chicago Tribune, Dec. 5, 2009.

3 Greg Burns, “Manufacturing won't solve next decade's job woes,” Chicago Tribune, Dec. 7, 2009.