Manufacturing jobs moving from old industries to new fields on clarkhoward.com

U.S. manufacturing is currently in the midst of a massive shift away from jobs in old industries like textiles and printing to new fields like semiconductors and communications equipment.

A new report from the Federal Reserve shows that, in addition to textiles and printing, sectors such as furniture, cars and plastics/rubber products also shrunk in 2009.

But that's only half the story. The Wall Street Journal reports that, in addition to semiconductors and communications equipment, other businesses that saw growth last year included computers and the electricity/oil/gas sector. For example, new methods of extraction have created incredible new supplies of domestically sourced natural gas.

Remember, this is precisely why it's so important in a dynamic modern economy to never stop learning. Don't think that what you do is the only thing you have any interest in. Remove your blinders! Be curious. Study and create new things to find the entrepreneur within you.

We're not at a dead end, we're just at a serious bump in road. But we as a country will adapt and have new opportunities.

What others are saying

My big brain hursts...from sitting on it.
Defense spending is 14% of the budget. In the 1950's it was 2/3rds. In the 60's, it was 50%.

Get a clue!
By anonymous @ 03/09/10 08:22:33 AMreport abuse
Too many six-packs
Hey bubba Joe - it might comes as a surprise but Bush hasn't been president for over a year. Obama requested a 3.8 trillion dollar budget - not Bush. This is Obama's econmy now. Wake up - its 2010!

It also doesn't take skilled labor to lay asphalt or pour concrete - I've seen this done all over the world with unskilled labor. Too many Americans want skilled labor wages for unskilled work.

Roads built by the Romans 2000 years ago are still in use while roads built in this country are potholed and falling apart after 20 years.

If you think Bush was a thief - wait another 3 years and take inventory of the national debt and what it 'bought' you!
By J.J. @ 02/07/10 08:59:53 PMreport abuse
Incentive
What will be the incentive for americans to want to learn new skills or even use old skills. With the massive government spending, tax rates will have to be raised to at least 50%. Businesses will have to go underground getting paid under the table or move overseas. But the debt doesn't go away, so taxes are reaised even further on those who chose to participate.
By edrebber @ 02/07/10 10:48:21 AMreport abuse
Big Brain
Hey Big Brain too bad it dosn't work.
The Constitution says the only duty of the feederal goverment is to protect the people! Not provide for the people, like you bleeding heart liberals want.
By Pete @ 02/05/10 05:06:55 PMreport abuse
Less military grunts, more intellectual superiority
You want deficit to be payed down? OK then less military spending it is! 50% of the Federal budget is carved out to Defense spending. Do you feel safe? I would feel safer if that budget went down to 20% and education went up 20%. Business is war and we need to have everyone in America smarter across the board.
By My big brain hursts from knowlege @ 02/05/10 04:23:52 PMreport abuse
Manufacturing is dead and buried
Clark has the spirit and means well but facts are facts, manufacturing is dead and small businesses face extinction in this economy, and this economy could just be the beginning of bad and not the end of it as many optimists chat up. If one judges our fate on our ability to pay our nation's debt off, we are toast. Just in the small area I'm in in western Wisconsin, the amount of lost jobs in just the last 3 years exceeds 15k in a area with less than 100k population. In the last year our area has had one tech business pop up that hired 6 people and the politicians talk about some solar panel manufacturing plant that will be built in the next 2 years that may employ up to 200 people. Wow. As for the semiconductor industry we have THEE largest one right there, Hutch Tech, and they have consistently laid-off much of their workforce for the last decade or more and now only direct hire for management and the laborers and associate positions all go through temp services and are never offered long-term work. I just did a search today for job openings in my area, I found around 30 with half of those being in the medical field, a field I'm currently finishing my schooling in, most of those jobs are RN and 2-4 year degree positions and one security job at a hospital, about 40% of the 30 are GOVERNMENT jobs, and the remaining 10% are all temporary/part-time/seasonal low-paying positions, half of those are on craigslist, a notorious site for fake postings. So, one either has to break their savings and change careers by going to college again as I am doing, attempt to start a business in a sea of bad or take a low-paying job, maybe two or three, and hope our economy changes for the better. Education is the key, but it's beyond affordable for many. Good luck.
By Chris @ 02/05/10 02:18:13 PMreport abuse
Manufacturing Jobs
I have worked in Semiconductor Manufacturing for 17 years. I was recently laid off along with thousands of others. Those jobs are going overseas too.....
By Mike @ 02/05/10 11:35:06 AMreport abuse
national debt
A lot of people are very upset about the rapidly increasing U.S. national debt these days and they are demanding a solution. What they don't realize is that there simply is not a solution under the current U.S. financial system. It is now mathematically impossible for the U.S. government to pay off the U.S. national debt. You see, the truth is that the U.S. government now owes more dollars than actually exist. If the U.S. government went out today and took every single penny from every single American bank, business and taxpayer, they still would not be able to pay off the national debt. And if they did that, obviously American society would stop functioning because nobody would have any money to buy or sell anything.
And the U.S. government would still be massively in debt.

So why doesn't the U.S. government just fire up the printing presses and print a bunch of money to pay off the debt?

Well, for one very simple reason.

That is not the way our system works.

You see, for more dollars to enter the system, the U.S. government has to go into more debt.

The U.S. government does not issue U.S. currency - the Federal Reserve does.
By jim @ 02/05/10 08:11:11 AMreport abuse
America is on the chopping Block
State governments are the canaries in our national coal mine; their tax receipts are one of the very few measures of economic activity that aren’t being systematically fiddled by the federal government. The figures coming out of state revenue offices strike a jarring contrast with the handwaving about “green shoots” and an imminent return to prosperity heard from Washington DC and the media. Across the country, every few months, states that have already cut spending drastically to cope with record declines in tax income find that they have to go back and do it all over again, because their revenue – and by inference, the incomes, purchases, business activity, and other economic phenomena that feed into taxes – has dropped even further. Now it’s true that state budgets get hit whenever the economy goes into recession, and keep on hurting even when the recession is supposed to be over, but compared to past examples, the losses clobbering state funding these days are off the scale, and a great many programs that have been fixtures of American public life for as long as most of us have been living are facing the chopping block.
By Sarah @ 02/04/10 11:05:06 PMreport abuse
Read the signs correctly
If I read the signs correctly, America has finally reached the point where its economy is so deep into overshoot that catabolic collapse is beginning in earnest. If so, a great many of the things most of us in this country have treated as permanent fixtures are likely to go away over the years immediately before us, as the United States transforms itself into a Third World country. The changes involved won’t be sudden, and it seems unlikely that most of them will get much play in the domestic mass media; a decade from now, let’s say, when half the American workforce has no steady work, decaying suburbs have mutated into squalid shantytowns, and domestic insurgencies flare across the south and the mountain West, those who still have access to cable television will no doubt be able to watch talking heads explain how we’re all better off than we were in 2000.
By ben @ 02/04/10 10:58:29 PMreport abuse
New Fields
Clark those "new fields" you are talking about are manufactured in foreign countries then shipped to some fat cat desk jockey in the United States who marks them up who knows how much and then makes a crazy profit. There are some exceptions but there are no Fords or GMs in the making. Stop giving people false hope.
By Bob Bummer @ 02/04/10 07:26:00 PMreport abuse
Sure Clark
I started a manufacturing business 1n 1985 and it's now quite profitable. Am I planning to expand and hire more people? Heck no, I'm going to cash in my chips and retire. The days of the small entrepreneur are over in the USA. State and federal regulations, labor laws, and the general laziness among younger workers have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. My advice to young people would be to move to a country that is growing and where hard work is still rewarded. Brazil and Chile come to mind, but there are many others.
By Scott @ 02/04/10 06:37:11 PMreport abuse

My big brain hursts...from sitting on it.

Defense spending is 14% of the budget. In the 1950's it was 2/3rds. In the 60's, it was 50%.

Get a clue!

By anonymous @ 03/09/10 08:22:33 AMreport abuse

Too many six-packs

Hey bubba Joe - it might comes as a surprise but Bush hasn't been president for over a year. Obama requested a 3.8 trillion dollar budget - not Bush. This is Obama's econmy now. Wake up - its 2010!

It also doesn't take skilled labor to lay asphalt or pour concrete - I've seen this done all over the world with unskilled labor. Too many Americans want skilled labor wages for unskilled work.

Roads built by the Romans 2000 years ago are still in use while roads built in this country are potholed and falling apart after 20 years.

If you think Bush was a thief - wait another 3 years and take inventory of the national debt and what it 'bought' you!

By J.J. @ 02/07/10 08:59:53 PMreport abuse

Incentive

What will be the incentive for americans to want to learn new skills or even use old skills. With the massive government spending, tax rates will have to be raised to at least 50%. Businesses will have to go underground getting paid under the table or move overseas. But the debt doesn't go away, so taxes are reaised even further on those who chose to participate.

By edrebber @ 02/07/10 10:48:21 AMreport abuse

Big Brain

Hey Big Brain too bad it dosn't work.
The Constitution says the only duty of the feederal goverment is to protect the people! Not provide for the people, like you bleeding heart liberals want.

By Pete @ 02/05/10 05:06:55 PMreport abuse

Less military grunts, more intellectual superiority

You want deficit to be payed down? OK then less military spending it is! 50% of the Federal budget is carved out to Defense spending. Do you feel safe? I would feel safer if that budget went down to 20% and education went up 20%. Business is war and we need to have everyone in America smarter across the board.

By My big brain hursts from knowlege @ 02/05/10 04:23:52 PMreport abuse

Manufacturing is dead and buried

Clark has the spirit and means well but facts are facts, manufacturing is dead and small businesses face extinction in this economy, and this economy could just be the beginning of bad and not the end of it as many optimists chat up. If one judges our fate on our ability to pay our nation's debt off, we are toast. Just in the small area I'm in in western Wisconsin, the amount of lost jobs in just the last 3 years exceeds 15k in a area with less than 100k population. In the last year our area has had one tech business pop up that hired 6 people and the politicians talk about some solar panel manufacturing plant that will be built in the next 2 years that may employ up to 200 people. Wow. As for the semiconductor industry we have THEE largest one right there, Hutch Tech, and they have consistently laid-off much of their workforce for the last decade or more and now only direct hire for management and the laborers and associate positions all go through temp services and are never offered long-term work. I just did a search today for job openings in my area, I found around 30 with half of those being in the medical field, a field I'm currently finishing my schooling in, most of those jobs are RN and 2-4 year degree positions and one security job at a hospital, about 40% of the 30 are GOVERNMENT jobs, and the remaining 10% are all temporary/part-time/seasonal low-paying positions, half of those are on craigslist, a notorious site for fake postings. So, one either has to break their savings and change careers by going to college again as I am doing, attempt to start a business in a sea of bad or take a low-paying job, maybe two or three, and hope our economy changes for the better. Education is the key, but it's beyond affordable for many. Good luck.

By Chris @ 02/05/10 02:18:13 PMreport abuse

Manufacturing Jobs

I have worked in Semiconductor Manufacturing for 17 years. I was recently laid off along with thousands of others. Those jobs are going overseas too.....

By Mike @ 02/05/10 11:35:06 AMreport abuse

national debt

A lot of people are very upset about the rapidly increasing U.S. national debt these days and they are demanding a solution. What they don't realize is that there simply is not a solution under the current U.S. financial system. It is now mathematically impossible for the U.S. government to pay off the U.S. national debt. You see, the truth is that the U.S. government now owes more dollars than actually exist. If the U.S. government went out today and took every single penny from every single American bank, business and taxpayer, they still would not be able to pay off the national debt. And if they did that, obviously American society would stop functioning because nobody would have any money to buy or sell anything.
And the U.S. government would still be massively in debt.

So why doesn't the U.S. government just fire up the printing presses and print a bunch of money to pay off the debt?

Well, for one very simple reason.

That is not the way our system works.

You see, for more dollars to enter the system, the U.S. government has to go into more debt.

The U.S. government does not issue U.S. currency - the Federal Reserve does.

By jim @ 02/05/10 08:11:11 AMreport abuse

America is on the chopping Block

State governments are the canaries in our national coal mine; their tax receipts are one of the very few measures of economic activity that aren’t being systematically fiddled by the federal government. The figures coming out of state revenue offices strike a jarring contrast with the handwaving about “green shoots” and an imminent return to prosperity heard from Washington DC and the media. Across the country, every few months, states that have already cut spending drastically to cope with record declines in tax income find that they have to go back and do it all over again, because their revenue – and by inference, the incomes, purchases, business activity, and other economic phenomena that feed into taxes – has dropped even further. Now it’s true that state budgets get hit whenever the economy goes into recession, and keep on hurting even when the recession is supposed to be over, but compared to past examples, the losses clobbering state funding these days are off the scale, and a great many programs that have been fixtures of American public life for as long as most of us have been living are facing the chopping block.

By Sarah @ 02/04/10 11:05:06 PMreport abuse

Read the signs correctly

If I read the signs correctly, America has finally reached the point where its economy is so deep into overshoot that catabolic collapse is beginning in earnest. If so, a great many of the things most of us in this country have treated as permanent fixtures are likely to go away over the years immediately before us, as the United States transforms itself into a Third World country. The changes involved won’t be sudden, and it seems unlikely that most of them will get much play in the domestic mass media; a decade from now, let’s say, when half the American workforce has no steady work, decaying suburbs have mutated into squalid shantytowns, and domestic insurgencies flare across the south and the mountain West, those who still have access to cable television will no doubt be able to watch talking heads explain how we’re all better off than we were in 2000.

By ben @ 02/04/10 10:58:29 PMreport abuse

New Fields

Clark those "new fields" you are talking about are manufactured in foreign countries then shipped to some fat cat desk jockey in the United States who marks them up who knows how much and then makes a crazy profit. There are some exceptions but there are no Fords or GMs in the making. Stop giving people false hope.

By Bob Bummer @ 02/04/10 07:26:00 PMreport abuse

Sure Clark

I started a manufacturing business 1n 1985 and it's now quite profitable. Am I planning to expand and hire more people? Heck no, I'm going to cash in my chips and retire. The days of the small entrepreneur are over in the USA. State and federal regulations, labor laws, and the general laziness among younger workers have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. My advice to young people would be to move to a country that is growing and where hard work is still rewarded. Brazil and Chile come to mind, but there are many others.

By Scott @ 02/04/10 06:37:11 PMreport abuse

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Feb 04, 2010 -- Manufacturing jobs moving from old industries to new fields

What others are saying