Manufacturing has traditionally provided some of the best-paying jobs in the U.S. economy.  And where 14 million Americans are directly employed by manufacturing, another 8 million have found jobs via manufacturing’s “multiplier effect”—it’s interconnected linkage to the rest of the economy.  This phenomenon is clearly visible in many U.S. cities, where a large factory often drives the local economy.

So what happens when a large plant is put out of business by subsidized low-cost competition from a country like China ? 

Not only do the factory’s workers lose their jobs, but those people whose livelihoods depend upon the overall manufacturing economy also lose their jobs.  This ripple effect means less taxes paid into the local and state economy, less disposable income to buy goods at the local store, fewer people with health insurance, and an increased demand for social services at precisely the time when the tax base is shrinking.

In a troubling example of “What if…,” the Fayetteville Observer’s Andrew Barksdale has pondered the troubles that would plague North Carolina if the Goodyear Plant in Raleigh were forced to close its doors. 

While Goodyear’s annual payroll currently reaches $142 million, and the typical Goodyear factory worker earns $50,000 a year, Barksdale suggests that a shuttered Goodyear plant could mean thousands of displaced workers and the loss of up to $1 billion a year in overall economic activity.

If you don’t think manufacturing is important, think for a moment about whether your job could be affected by the loss of someone else’s factory job.
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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 11:27 pm and is filed under Manufacturing in the U.S., Economic Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.