Manufacturing Job Cuts Severe for U.S.

[OhioChick]

Published Saturday, April 21, 2007

WASHINGTON - Three weeks ago, Dawn Zimmer became a statistic.

Laid off from her job assembling trucks at Freightliner's plant in Portland, Ore., she and 800 of her colleagues joined a long line of U.S. manufacturing workers who have lost jobs in recent years. A total of 3.2 million - one in six factory jobs - have disappeared since the start of 2000.

Many people believe those jobs will never come back.

"They are building a multimillion-dollar plant in Mexico and they are going to build the Freightliners down there. They came in and videotaped us at work so they could train the Mexican workers," said Zimmer, 55, who had worked at Freightliner since 1994.

That's the issue for American workers. Many of their jobs are moving overseas, to Mexico and China and elsewhere.

Even though manufacturing jobs have been declining, the country is enjoying the lowest average unemployment rates of the past four decades. The reason: the growth in the service industries - everything from hotel chambermaids to skilled heart surgeons.

Eighty-four percent of Americans in the labor force are employed in service jobs, up from 81 percent in 2000. The sector has added 8.78 million jobs since the start of 2000.

Although these workers have been largely sheltered from the global forces that have hit manufacturing, that could change as satellites and fiber optic cable drive down the cost of long-distance communication. Today it is call centers in India and the Philippines, but tomorrow many more U.S. jobs could move off shore.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070421/NEWS/704210358/1001/BUSINESS

[xchrom]

1. those jobs move off-shore with help from U.S. lawmakers.

it doesn't entirely have to be this way -- our laws smooth the road for those jobs to get from here to there.

[Lithos]

2. Of course

While they tout that Service jobs include heart-surgeons, most of them are nothing more than McJobs paying the minimum wage. The US is becoming the nation of hair-dressers and accountants satirically ripped to shreds by Doug Adams in the Hitchhiker books.

L-

[fasttense]

3. The truth is any service job can go bye-bye as well.

"A total of 3.2 million - one in six factory jobs - have disappeared since the start of 2000.

Even though manufacturing jobs have been declining, the country is enjoying the lowest average unemployment rates of the past four decades. The reason: the growth in the service industries - everything from hotel chambermaids to skilled heart surgeons."

Don't believe those unemployment numbers. They are rigged by this administration. No job is safe.

The high end service jobs can easily be moved to India and China. A skilled heart surgeons can be located anywhere in the world and the rich and sick will find him. If it is expertise people are paying for, they will pay for it in Egypt as easily as in the US. These jobs will be disappearing soon too.

I remember when we use to have gas station attendants and elevator operators. So called service jobs are easily displaced by automation. There are fruit picking trees and vacuums that run themselves, self-cleaning toilets and showers. Most of the so called service jobs can easily be replaced by current technology. The only reason they haven't been is because cheap labor is less expensive than the equipment. As the equipment comes down in price, the job will disappear. Even car mechanics can be displaced by having a drive thru diagnostic system. The operator can be located in China while a low paid wage slave replaces the parts direct by the diagnostic system. No job is safe and that is the way the bushes want it.

[FiddlersGreen]

5. a kurt vonnegut story

I remember a story by Kurt Vonnegut called Harrison Bergeron. In the story, All of society is made equal by technology. Because the technology is not available to raise everyone up, the government is used to bring everyone down. The graceful are chained to bricks and the smart have chips in their brain that blast loud sounds. The person responsible for this operation is the Handicapper General

You seem reactionary to the idea that technology allows someone a world away to do the same job for a lot less skill or labor. How can we protect American jobs without needing a handicapper general?

[Preening Fop]

4. The Rather Stark Differences Between Denmark and the U.S.....

Why would 78% of Danes believe,
globalization is an opportunity?

From BBC World News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6563639.stm

Link Corrected