Why manufacturing jobs are going away

From David Brook's column "The Cognitive Age,"  New York Times, May 2, 2008

The chief force reshaping manufacturing is technological change (hastened by competition with other companies in Canada, Germany or down the street). Thanks to innovation, manufacturing productivity has doubled over two decades. Employers now require fewer but more highly skilled workers. Technological change affects China just as it does the America. William Overholt of the RAND Corporation has noted that between 1994 and 2004 the Chinese shed 25 million manufacturing jobs, 10 times more than the U.S.

The central process driving this is not globalization. It’s the skills revolution. We’re moving into a more demanding cognitive age. In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information. This is happening in localized and globalized sectors, and it would be happening even if you tore up every free trade deal ever inked.

Hmmmm, sounds like what I heard on Minnesota Public Radio not that long ago. Maybe if David Brooks says it, people will listen. Or not.

Comments

[Tom Hoffman]

Manufacturing jobs have been gone a long, long time. Unfortunately, this "Cognitive Age" stuff is really just happy talk -- LOOK AT THE DATA --> http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco2003.htm

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Tom,

All I know is that we have a manufacturing labor shortage in MN. But it is skilled positions that are needed (cognitive?) The non-skilled mfg jobs are long gone, for sure.

Doug