Found a good "Made In America" link? Let Us Know!

Video:  The Need to Strengthen U.S. Manufacturing The Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a non-partisan partnership of several leading American manufacturers and their unions, advocates strong enforcement of U.S. trade law to deal with illegal, subsidized competition from countries such as China. Enforcemnt of existing U.S. trade law could help to strengthen U.S. manufacturing and save American manufacturing jobs. AAM has sponsored a campaign of national Town Hall meetings to promote this message.

Video:  John Ratzenberger- Made in America In this video, Mr. Ratzenberger discusses his roots in Bridgeport, CT and his concerns about the loss of America's manufacturing base.

From Ed, a viewer:
You are doing a great job promoting American Products but another thing to remember the economy is bad, is if you can't buy American, buy from your local thrift store, garage sale, buy used, at least the Chinese or India will not be getting most of our money. Also get our delegates to promote the Patriot Bill for American jobs, any American company that keeps there jobs here get a 30% decrease in taxes. I think that will help with our work going overseas and it may have some of them coming back Yeahhhhhhh!!!!!!

MadeInAmericaStuff.com is a website that exclusively sells products which are made in America. If you make or manufacture products in America, we encourage you to consider becoming a merchant with them. Also seems to be a pretty good place to buy stuff, but I have no experience with them. I received the following e-mail from one of the site creators:

From Eric, a viewer:
Hello,
I came across your site and wanted to email you. My name is Eric and I, with the help of others, have created a website called Made In America Stuff.com.
What I am emailing you about is a section on our site called Water Towers across America. It is located on the right column of our main page. This section of our site offers a free placement of information for any town across America. A place where they can add their link, history, images, Festivals, events, and places to see. A town is welcome to add any images but we would prefer a water town or welcome sign to be the primary image. It is our way of promoting America, one water tower at a time…
If you would be so kind, we would greatly appreciate it if you mention our water tower section in one of your blog postings. We know it is a lot to ask and truly appreciate your consideration. If you would like we can add a link to your site from our link section as well.

Please let us know what you think.
Thank you,

~ Eric
Don’t Forget the “Stuff” TM
MadeInAmericaStuff.com

Plant Closings and Job Losses

U.S. textile plants are often located in small rural communities in the Southeast and often represent the major source of employment and taxes for many towns and cities.  When a textile mill closes, the entire community feels the ramifications, with local businesses, churches and government being hurt.  The industry is also a primary employer of women and minorities.

Textile mill jobs are highly sought after in their communities, with pay substantially higher than average wages for jobs in the service and retail industry.  Benefits are better too and include health care and pension contributions.   The average weekly salary for a textile worker is $487, sixty percent more than the average salary of $301 for a worker in a retail store.

The combined US textile sector – including cotton and man-made fiber producers, textile mills, apparel plants and textile machinery producers – is one of the largest employers in the United States.  Nearly one million workers are employed in this enormous sector.  The breakdown is:  textiles 416,000; apparel 285,000; cotton 230,000; man-made fiber 35,000; textile machinery 8,000.

Up-to-date Plant Closings - A chronological listing of U.S. textile plant closings since 1997 can be found here.

Latest Job Loss Figures - Monthly job losses in the U.S. textile and apparel industry.

U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services Highlights January 11, 2008
Goods and Services Deficit Increases in November 2007
The Nation's international deficit in goods and services increased to $63.1 billion in November from $57.8 billion (revised) in October, as imports increased more than exports.

Goods and Services

• Exports increased to $142.3 billion in November from $141.7 billion in October. Goods were $101.0 billion in November, up from $100.9 billion in October, and services were $41.4 billion in November, up from $40.8 billion in October.
• Imports increased to $205.4 billion in November from $199.4 billion in October. Goods were $173.7 billion in November, up from $167.8 billion in October, and services were $31.8 billion in November, up from $31.7 billion in October.
• For goods, the deficit was $72.7 billion in November, up from $66.9 billion in October. For services, the surplus was $9.6 billion in November, up from $9.2 billion in October.
  

Goods by Category

• The October to November change in exports of goods reflected increases in automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($0.5 billion); foods, feeds, and beverages ($0.4 billion); other goods ($0.4 billion); and industrial supplies and materials ($0.2 billion). Decreases occurred in capital goods ($0.9 billion) and consumer goods ($0.1 billion).
  
• The October to November change in imports of goods reflected increases in industrial supplies and materials ($4.7 billion); consumer goods ($0.8 billion); other goods ($0.3 billion); foods, feeds, and beverages ($0.2 billion); capital goods ($0.2 billion); and automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($0.1 billion).

Services by Category

• The October to November change in exports of services reflected increases in transfers under U.S. military sales contracts ($0.2 billion); other transportation ($0.1 billion), which includes freight and port services; and travel ($0.1 billion). Changes in other categories of services exports were small.
  
• The October to November change in imports of services reflected an increase in other private services ($0.1 billion), which includes items such as business, professional, and technical services, insurance services, and financial services. Changes in other categories of services imports were small.

Goods by Geographic Area (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

• The goods deficit with Canada decreased from $5.4 billion in October to $4.7 billion in November. Exports decreased $0.7 billion (primarily military aircraft and automotive parts and accessories) to $22.6 billion, while imports decreased $1.3 billion (primarily crude oil, civilian aircraft, and pharmaceutical preparations) to $27.4 billion.
  
• The goods deficit with China decreased from $25.9 billion in October to $24.0 billion in November. Exports increased $0.1 billion (primarily civilian aircraft and soybeans) to $5.8 billion, while imports decreased $1.8 billion (primarily apparel; household goods; and toys, games, and sporting goods) to $29.8 billion.
  
• The goods deficit with the European Union decreased from $11.9 billion in October to $10.4 billion in November. Exports decreased $0.8 billion (primarily civilian aircraft, passenger cars, and telecommunications equipment) to $21.0 billion, while imports decreased $2.3 billion (primarily pharmaceutical preparations, crude oil, and petroleum products) to $31.4 billion.

  This and more information is provided in the Bureau of the Census and Bureau of Economic Analysis press release:

  U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: November 2007 .

  This and more information is provided in the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis press release, U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: November 2007. For further information on goods, contact Maria Iseman, Foreign Trade Division, U.S. Census Bureau, on (301) 763-2311; on services, contact Christopher Bach, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, on (202) 606-9545.
  
  NOTE: Total goods data are reported on a Balance of Payments basis; commodity and country detail data for goods are on a Census basis. For information on data sources and definitions, see the information section on page 26 of the FT-900 release, or at www.census.gov/ft900 or http://www.bea.gov/bea/di/home/trade.htm.

The state of jobs and wages
Lee Price and Jared Bernstein

Economy up, wages down
The year 2005 was a solid economic year by some indicators, as the economy expanded for the fourth consecutive year. Real hourly wages, however, fell for most workers. Each bar in Figure A and Figure B represents the percent change in the buying power of the wage for different groups of workers. Figure A shows the real wage changes of low-, middle-, and high-wage workers, corresponding to wages at the tenth, fiftieth, and ninety-fifth percentile of the wage scale. Figure B shows the change in average real wages by education level for high-school and college graduates (four-year degrees).

Figure A

Figure B

For low- and middle-wage workers, as well as those with a high school degree, real wages fell last year by 1%-2%. Those at the top of the wage scale experienced marginal gains, and real wages were essentially unchanged for college graduates.

The decline in real wages for these groups of workers was the result of a variety of factors. As shown in an earlier analysis, nominal wage growth slowed over the past few years as the slack in the job market ultimately slowed the momentum coming out of the full-employment job market of the latter 1990s. Inflation was also a factor last year, as energy costs drove prices higher (on average for the year, inflation was up 2.7% in 2004 and 3.4% in 2005). Thus, nominal wages needed to grow that much faster to beat price growth.

Other factors contributing to the decline in real wages are those that reduce the bargaining leverage of many in the workforce, including: the erosion of union power, the fall in the real value of the minimum wage, the growing imbalance in international trade, and the offshoring of white-collar jobs. As long as these forces are in play, the headwinds pushing against real wage gains for many in the workforce will remain strong.

Sluggish private job growth indicates failure of tax cuts

Changes in tax law since 2001 reduced federal government revenue by $870 billion through September 2005. Supporters of these tax cuts have touted them as great contributors to growth in jobs and pay. But, in reality, private-sector job growth since 2001 has been disappointing, and a closer look at the new jobs created shows that federal spending—not tax cuts—are responsible for the jobs created in the past five years.

If tax cuts have created jobs at all since 2001, it will have happened in the private sector. Assuming that job growth in 2006 matches the Bush Administration's projections, the economy will have added about 2.0 million jobs to the private sector from FY2001 through FY2006. But how many of these two million jobs actually can be attributed to tax cuts and how many to increased government spending—particularly increased defense spending—in this period?

Based on Defense Department estimates of the number of private-sector jobs created by its own spending, we project that additional defense spending will account for a 1.495 million gain in private sector jobs between FY2001 and FY2006. Furthermore, increases in non-defense discretionary spending since 2001 will have added yet another 1.325 million jobs in the private sector, for a total of 2.82 million jobs created by increased government spending. Increased mandatory government spending—which is not even included in these estimates or the accompanying chart—would account for even more job creation. The mere fact that the projected job growth resulting from increased defense and other government spending exceeds the actual number of jobs projected to be added to the economy through 2006 clearly indicates that the tax cuts hardly seem plausible as the engine of the modest job growth in the economy since 2001.

Recent job gains lag far behind historical norms

President Bush has noted that 2 million jobs were created over the course of 2005 and that we have added 4.6 million jobs since the decline in jobs ended in May 2003. But does that mean the labor market is getting back to normal?

Unfortunately, no. Recent job gains lag far behind historical norms. Last year's 2 million new jobs represented a gain of 1.5%, a sluggish growth rate by historical standards (see chart below). In fact, it is less than half of the average growth rate of 3.5% for the same stage of previous business cycles that lasted as long. At that pace, we would have created 4.6 million jobs last year. If jobs had grown last year at the pace of even the slowest of the prior cycles—2.1% in the 1980s—we would have added 2.8 million jobs. Over the last half century, the only 12-month spans with job growth as low as 1.5% were those that actually included recession months, occurred just before a recession, or were during the "jobless recovery" of 1992 and early 1993.

For further analysis, consult the following EPI publications:
Why people are so dissatisfied with today's economy (Issue Brief #219)
The wage squeeze and higher health care costs (Issue Brief #218)

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