Laid-Off Factory Workers Find Jobs Are Drying Up for Good

[chiburb]

Today's Wall Street Journal (front page). (I realize this is a pay site, so the link won't work for most. Buy a copy on the way home to read the whole story.)

Snip:

While hundreds of factories close in any given year, something historic and fundamentally different is occurring now. For manufacturing, this isn't a cyclical downturn. Most of these basic and low-skill factory jobs aren't liable to come back when the economy recovers or when excess capacity around the world dissolves.

Railroad cars, unlike buggy whips, are still needed, as are toys, appliances and shoes. But the task of making these goods is increasingly being assumed by more efficient machines and processes. Or they've been transferred to workers who earn less and live in another country. While these changes have been going on to a limited extent for years, the economic slowdown has greatly accelerated and broadened this historic shift. By some estimates, roughly 1.3 million manufacturing jobs have moved abroad since the beginning of 1992, the bulk in the past three years to Mexico and East Asia.

Snip:

Now he finds himself stranded in the labor pipeline along with a generation of assemblers, welders, and tool and die men who learned their trade on the job and know little of computer-driven machines and new age manufacturing techniques. In June, manufacturing cut 56,000 jobs, the 35th consecutive monthly decline and the longest string of layoffs in that industry since World War II.

"We're saving corporate jobs by moving production jobs to lower-cost areas," says Daniel Meckstroth, chief economist with the Manufacturers Alliance, a public policy and business research group in Arlington, Va.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105874846888793500,00.html?mod=home%5Fpage%5Fone%5Fus

[pdove]

1. We spend 1 Billion a month in Iraq!

Can not we use the money more wisely?

[chiburb]

2. Maybe we can move some jobs to Iraq... n/t

.

[atreides1]

10. Actually...

it's more to the tune of 4 Billion a month, not 1 Billion.

[pdove]

13. Intended to say 1 Billion a Week.

Sorry for the mistake.

[are_we_united_yet]

3. Thank the Republicans!

Your too god too America!

[dani]

4. I also thank some of the Dems

who are enthusiastic about unfettered "free trade".

[revcarol]

7. The bulk of the jobs moved in the "last three years!"

Thanks, people who bought into the NAFTA, WTO scam.<HEAVY, HEAVY SARCASM>

(Support Kucinich: he favors bi-lateral trade treaties, repealing NAFTA and withdrawing from the WTO.)

[Maple]

5. I'd buy it today

except they don't sell it in my area of Canada. :D

Anyway, what little I can read of it points out that globalization and the Infoage is occurring, and is pretty much what Toffler and others predicted 20 years ago.

Low paying, low skill jobs will go elsewhere and the only way to keep ahead of it is to be innovative. Move to the kinds of jobs that workers overseas can't do for less...the kinds of jobs that currently can only be done in the west.

[Vitruvius]

16. Be innovative? How? When factory jobs leave, engineering jobs go with

them. Nations that don't manufacture cannot innovate. Except, possibly in software, entertainment, and the like. Which isn't enough to sustain an economy.

Which leaves flipping burgers and cleaning the houses of the rich as the kinds of jobs that workers overseas cannot do for less. Which is why the Rethugs LOVE using illegal aliens to clean their houses and man their fast-food outfits...

Vitruvius

P.S: The whole point of inventing & innovating is to get into the MANUFACTURING -- which is where the MONEY is. Any individual or nation that settles for a royalty of 2% to 5% when they could have the whole pie by manufacturing is a fool.

[sandnsea]

19. IT workers tried that

It didn't work. It really won't even work for professions like nursing and teaching which are hands on. They'll just import foreign workers. My son's a wildland firefighter and says half the crew is often from Mexico. It isn't a slam against foreigners, it's just a fact. We either have to fight for American jobs or end up with a much lower standard of living.

[JohnyCanuck]

20. It's a shell game IMHO.

Low paying, low skill jobs will go elsewhere and the only way to keep ahead of it is to be innovative. Move to the kinds of jobs that workers overseas can't do for less...the kinds of jobs that currently can only be done in the west.

When it comes down to it, what jobs are they really that can "ONLY" be done in the West. Are there enough jobs that can "ONLY" be done in the West that will keep a fair proportion of the Western work force gainfully employed with a wage rate that supports a reasonable standard of living? And it is not just low paying jobs that are going overseas. It's high paying jobs as well such as in the high tech and medical sector (e.g. Indian Doctor's screening Xrays for North American hospitals).

We told the laid off machinist when he lost his job in manufacturing to get with it and innovate and get re-trained as a computer programmer and take advantage of the new economy that was coming down the pipe and bringing with it trade and prosperity. Now the computer programmer jobs are moving to India and the Phillipines (as numerous posts on DU have discussed). So what's the 45 year old ex-machinist, ex-programmer supposed to retrain as this go round? Ok go back to school for a couple years (while supporting a family and making mortgage payments) and become a bio-tech worker. Then 5 years after graduating with his bio-tech diploma (providing he has even found someone willing to hire him), we inform him that Indonesian bio-tech workers are just as good as our North American bio-tech workers, have up to date training and can do the job the North American bio tech workers are doing for one third the salary. Good by bio-tech job.

This whole Free Trade business is a farce. The talk that the industrialized world has to innovate and come up with new approaches or new industries to stay one hop ahead of the unemployment shark chomping at our feet as we are swimming madly to what we hope is safety is a bunch of bafflegab. It's designed to fool the sheep into thinking that the brainiacs who pawned off this free trade bullshit on us really do believe that we can keep our North American standards of living while exporting well paying jobs like crazy to the rest of the world with no real discussion on how the lost jobs will be replaced. Also if you are 48, got laid off and can't find work, hey it must be because you're just not innovative enough. It's nothing to do with our economic or trade policies.


It would be one thing if we were competing with other countries on a level playing field as far as thing like environmental laws, recognized rights for labor to organize, occupational safety rules etc. etc., but we are not. It is a race to the bottom.

[Nottingham]

6. While our Workers starve & are destroyed financially! Iraq is a toilet!

flushing Millions & Billions down it when it could go to our people!

:bounce:

[chiburb]

8. The article tells the story...

Of a family of blue collar workers, how they lost their jobs, how the only work available was in the local mall, etc. It's all pretty grim (and sad).
It isn't just Head Start or any of the 'social' programs. The Repukes are out to destroy this country, turn it into a banana republic, as long as:

"We're saving corporate jobs by moving production jobs to lower-cost areas," says Daniel Meckstroth, chief economist with the Manufacturers Alliance, a public policy and business research group in Arlington, Va.

[damnraddem]

9. Factory workers have long seen that outsourced jobs don't come back ...

when the economy rebounds. In fact, the economy doesn't rebound in ways that it used to -- new manufacturing advancing as backlogs of old manufactured goods are used up -- because the old stuff continues to be produced somewhere else (chances are, in China) at lower cost.

[madrchsod]

11. no shit..

been thru three of these,but this one is a disaster..these jobs are never coming back. what happened to the cities industrial base -the disappearence of jobs in the inter city created the loss of the black middle class and left the lower and sub class . now it is happening to rural america where a small town looses it major employer..maybe 100 or 200 people but it cripples the economy of that town. so it doesn`t matter if you`re a inter city minority or if you`re white and live the a rural area you`re still in the same boat and it`s slowly sinking....

[jiacinto]

12. The manufacturing sector is gone

And it isn't going to come back at all.

[Vitruvius]

21. Then we -- the US -- have had it -- because

the rest of the world won't keep sending us things in return for pieces of paper with George Washington on them...

[NYC]

24. I wonder if that will force a resurgence of manufacturing in the U.S.

We have no jobs. We won't be able to afford to buy the imported goods.

Will manufacturing things here be the only way we will be able to afford to buy the things we need? If that is the only way, maybe manufaturing will be resumed here.

I realize that until that reality is faced, most of us will be jobless or flipping burgers.

[salin]

14. Does the article talk at all about the macro implications?

These jobs are not being replaced, and new jobs are more service oriented with the bigger bulk being low paying rather than professional jobs. Over the long haul this will mean fewer consumer dollars floating around the economy. Over the long haul this could also have an impact on those still paying off mortgage and other debts who may see such a serious decline that they will be unable to do so, leading either to selling off assets (if this happens on a large collective scale this will have an impact on the markets for these assets such as real estate) or increasing defaults on loans.

Most stories along these lines focus on the individual - exceptionally micro - aspect of the story. I have read very little in sources such as the Wall Street Journal that consider the long term implication of losing a big segment of the middle class.

[demnan]

15. So who is going to be able to buy all these products

made overseas when no one in this country has a job?

That's something they haven't thought about, have they?

Greedy Republicans are stupid.

[Mari333]

17. Here we go again

[Cheswick2.0]

18. the stock market is distroying the country

the need to look more profitable every quarter, so as to sell more stock (the real money in coporate business)has distroyed our economy. This is not going to get better until the corporate jobs are taken away in favor of a decently paid american work force. I don't know what the answer is, however the wealth needs redistributing down.

[Aaron]

22. Anyone ever seen a study on the emotional health of production vs service

workers? I've done both service jobs and some production (construction field) - the construction seemed more satisfying as I had produced something, not simply filled time performing a task. It may just be that I'd rather make things than fill time or the nature of the service jobs was less pleasing to me or something like that but I do wonder about the general satisfation level of those working service jobs versus those working manufacturing jobs. Is there something inherently more satisfying for most people regarding production jobs?

[SharonAnn]

23. Why not outsource the CEO and other executive jobs?

There are qualified executives in other countries and they're demanding much lower salaries, bonuses, perqs, etc.

What say? I think it's a good idea.

[JohnyCanuck]

29. Why not outsource the politicians

Can you imagine the squeals of shocked outrage if you were to tell your senators and congressmen/congresswomen they were being let go because US citizens had found a bunch of educated, knowledgeable people in India who would agree to perform the role of US politicians for one fifth the salary and none of the perks the US politicians now take for granted. These new senators and representatives cetaintly couldn't do any worse at interpreting the US constiution than the current pack of jokers (with a few notable exceptions of course).

[okieinpain]

25. NPR ran a report this morning about teen's not being able to find

summer jobs because the adults had taken them all.

[Bandit]

26. "We're saving corporate jobs

What the hell does he mean by this. "We're saving corporate jobs by moving production jobs to lower-cost areas," :wtf:

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

28. "corporate jobs" means "corporate profits"

"jobs" is a code word for "profits" - as in, "if I don't make lots of profit, you are out of a job"

[JohnKleeb]

30. yep

For every new worker that the CEO will pay cheaply in like Taiwan or something he will get more money because labor laws over there are lax and while they suffer he's gonna be counting the green.

[tom_paine]

31. They mean they are saving the jobs of execs

while they piss the rest of us down the toilet.

It ain't American, but it is Amerikan.

Of course, this isn't Americas anymore, but Imperial Amerika, so at least it is consistent.

[casual_observer]

27. Eventually the only jobs will be at Walmart and Dennys

The Walmart workers eat out at Dennys and the Dennys and Walmart workers will shop at Walmart. Everybody else works at the local prison or for the DMV.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

32. Billions of Dollars for an Illegal War...

but not one cent for helping Americans get jobs!!!

"Vote for unemployment and debt: "Vote Bush in 04'"