Today, public sector (government) employment is 22.2 million vs. just 12.2 million manufacturing jobs.
In other words, there are 10 million or 80% more people employed by the government than making things in this country.
This is the complete opposite from 1979 when government employed 16 million people and manufacturing had 19.6 million workers.
So just 37 years ago, manufacturing employment was 22% more than our public sector employment.
Manufacturing lost 37% of it jobs, while government grew 39%.
It hasn't been since 1989 that there was parity at 18 million between the two sectors.
Lest you think that the loss in manufacturing jobs is due to automation and technology, the Economic Policy Institute states unequivocally:
"Trade, not productivity, is the culprit."
In the U.S. the annual trade deficit is over half a trillion dollars--we are hemorrhaging and no one has been even trying to stop the bleeding.
If we send all our manufacturing prowess and capacity abroad eventually we are not only going to lose our capability to make things, our ingenuity to invent things, but our finances to pay for anything.
Trade is a great thing when it is mutual and equal, not when it is one-sided and damaging to our economy and jobs.
Bad political decisions mean a poorer future for our economy and our nation. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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